IV Correlations of menstrual traits between adolescent girls and their mothers

It has been claimed that daughters mimic the menstrual patterns of their mothers. For the present report the menstrual patterns of c. 5,000 menstruating girls and their mothers were studied. Comparisons were made under the following headings: constitution, age of menarche, cycle, duration, regularity of menstruation, premenstrual tension, and dysmenorrhoea. The correlations between the patterns of menstruation of mothers and daughters were highly significant. The highest correlation coefficients were found for the age at menarche, for premenstrual tension, duration of flow and dysmenorrhoea, and the lowest for the regularity of menstruation. The question as to whether the genetic constitution or whether an acquired behaviour plays the more important role in these correlations is still unclear.