A new study that was published in the scientific journal “BMC Medicine” shows that things like when you get your first period, use of oral contraceptives, as well as childbirth and breastfeeding can affect your overall health.
The study found that childbirth, breast-feeding, oral contraceptive use, but also getting your first menstruation in later years is associated with better health status among women.
However, that does not mean that you are unhealthy if you are still childless who got her first period at the age of 13.
The researchers studied 322,972 women aged between 25 and 70 years, collecting the appropriate data. After 13 years they have collected the results, and in that moment, 14,383 women died. As the data showed, the risk of death was lower among the women who gave birth, breastfed, used birth control pills and got their first period after the age of 15.
However, to those women who did not fall under this category, this does not mean that you will be sick. In fact, researchers say that the data do not suggest that women who have not given birth have worse health as long as their BMI, physical activity and smoking status is similar to that of the other categories of women.