Last updated on October 17, 2020
Question:
I am 12 years and 4 months old. My mom is 5’7″, and my father is 6′. I currently stand at 5’2″ tall. Today I saw spots of blood in my underwear for the first time. I would like to know (I’ve read this on another site) if this could be my menstrual cycle starting, or if it could be a discharge of another kind. Also, every adult height prediction web site puts me at reaching the height of 5’7 or 5’8. These sites claim to be correct to within an inch. Having read your other posts, and if this is in fact my first period, I don’t see how I could reach the predicted height. Somebody has to be wrong.
What is your take on this?
Answer:
A prior question is almost the same as yours. Your situation is basically the same.
In regards to your final height, there are many factors that formulas cannot cover. They cover most situations and the claim of accuracy to within an inch is usually to a certain percentile. For example, they may be accurate to within an inch in 90% of the girls surveyed. That would mean they are wrong 10% of the time.
Poor nutrition or disease can throw these estimates off. Most estimators are calibrated to girls in the United States which has a different nutritional standard than many countries. And then there is always the luck of the gene draw, you could have received genes that limits your maximum height.
While some girls do not grow more than two inches after their first menstruation, it doesn’t mean every girl is so limited. The key is that about half of all girls have their major growth spurt about six months before their first menstruation. But not every girl develops in the same order. That means the other half have their first menstruation before their growth spurt. I recall that my own sister had her first menstruation before her growth spurt.