Menarche is the certain signal of girls' puberty and is usually preceded by a period of intensive growth. A transversal anthropological investigation of height, weight, upper arm circumference relax, triceps skinfold thickness and the age of menarche was conducted in the city of Novi Sad in 2001 and 2002. The subjects were 533 girls aged 10 - 15 years. The aim of the investigation was to determine the body status in pre-menarcheal and post-menarcheal girls. In the entire sample, 237 girls (44.47%) had menarche, with the earliest age being 9 years (1.69%). The average age of menarche equaled 12.22 ± 1.61, while the median equaled 12.33 ±0.10 years. On average body indicators were higher in post-menarcheal girls. Greatest differences are observed in the height, weight and muscle area, to smaller extent in upper arm circumference relaxed and BMI, while the smallest difference appears in triceps skinfold thickness and fat area.
