As the age at consummation of marriage and menarche coincides in the case of the majority of women in India, it is possible to study the occurrence of adolescent sterility.
In a study of the reproductive pattern of Bengalee women conducted in 1947-1949, it was found that the median interval between the age at consummation of marriage and that of the first birth decreased when the age at consummation of marriage increased.
The findings indicate that those girls, whose marriages were consummated at ages 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, the medians of this interval were 6.36, 5.53, 4.20, 3.47, 2.71 and 1.96 years respectively.
The median age at first birth for all these women varied between very low ranges, that is 15.29 to 15.96 years. For those women whose median age at consummation of marriage was either 15, 16 or 17 years, the average intervals between the age at cohabitation and that at first birth were 1.67, 1.44 and 1.33 respectively.
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The finding that when the age at cohabitation was lower, the interval between consummation of marriage and the birth of the first child was longer, confirmed the occurrence of adolescent sterility.
Another interesting conclusion, which may be drawn from these findings, is that early female marriages in India did not necessarily result in large families.
Post-Partum Sterility and Average Interval between Successive Births: During the reproductive span of women, there are certain periods of temporary sterility.
In addition to the period of adolescent sterility discussed above, the role of post-partum sterility needs to be considered. After the birth of a child, the woman is generally sterile for some period, as the menstrual cycle is not resumed, or if it is re-established, the earlier cycles are unovulatory.
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(The post-partum period in which menstruation is not resumed is known as the post-partum amenorrhea period.) During this period, the possibility of the occurrence of conception is very rare, and hence this period of temporary sterility is known as the post-partum sterile period.
It has been reported in many Indian studies that, as a result of breast-feeding, the post-partum amenorrhea period is longer for Indian women than for American and European women.
For instance, it was observed in Belgium that 75 per cent of the women resumed menstruation within six months of childbirth. On the other hand, 82 per cent of rural Indian women were found to have resumed menstruation after childbirth only after 12 months or later.
As a result of this prolonged postpartum amenorrhea, the average interval between two births for Indian women, even if they have not used contraception, has been found to be 34 to 36 months.
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It has also been pointed out that the Indian practice of observing long periods of abstinence from sexual intercourse following childbirth is also responsible for the longer birth intervals amongst Indian women. The influence of social and economic factors, such as health conditions and dietary habits, cannot also be ruled out.