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3 The Determinants of Adolescent Fertility with Special Reference to Biological Variables
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Published:January 1993
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Abstract
The initiation of reproductive capacity in humans typically occurs in the second decade of life. Because menarche is a clearly defined event and pregnancy occurs to women, while the onset of male reproductive capacity is less clear and paternity is sometimes unknown, the human female is usually the focus of study for both the timing of entry into reproductivity and for adolescent fertility. Adolescence is usually defined as covering the period from puberty to age 20. The age of puberty itself will be considered in this paper, but for fertility statistics, the 15-19 year age-group is used. Thus, the term adolescence is used in a general sense. There is variation in the age at menarche around the globe. After menarche, there is also wide variation among societies in the intermediate fertility variables (Davis and Blake, 1956), particularly in the age at entry into sexual union and the use of contraception and abortion. Observed fertility levels of adolescents reflect combinations of values of all the intermediate variables. After a brief overview of levels and trends of adolescent fertility, this paper examines the evidence on the age of menarche and its secular trend, fecundability after menarche, as well as observed spontaneous loss rates in the early reproductive years. Age at entry into sexual union and use of contraception and abortion within sexual unions are also considered, but in a perfunctory manner. To structure the discussion on fertility after menarche, the framework of the intermediate fertility variables is utilized.
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