Impact of menopause on quality of life: A cross sectional study in menopausal females in the north of Jordan

Abstract

Aims: Menopause can severely effects the somatic, urogenital and psychological aspects of life, our aim is to find out the Health Related Quality of Life in female patients with menopause in a tertiary care hospital.

Methods: A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted in the Gynecology out-patient department. All female patients with menopause attending the Gynecology OPD of tertiary care hospital for various complaints were included in the study. After obtaining written informed consent, demographics, relevant medical and surgical history was noted and they were then administered validated questionnaire ‘Health related Quality of Life Questionnaire: Menopause Rating Scale’ (HRQoL).

Results: The overall population sample size was 409. The mean age of menopause was 48.91± 4.76 years. Hot flushes and sweating (somatic symptom) were the commonest symptom (86.31%), followed by anxiety (psychological symptom) in 76.53%.  Maximum score was attributed to psychological symptoms, while urogenital domain had the minimum score. The association between the duration of menopause (early versus late post-menopause) and severity of symptom complex was found to be significant in psychological symptoms only.  Frequency of psychological symptoms decreased as the duration since onset of menopause increased. Occurrence of somatic and urogenital symptoms is not significantly associated with duration of menopause.

Conclusion: Menopausal symptoms commonly affect a large number of early and late post-menopausal women and adversely affect health related quality of life. Menopausal symptoms are common in postmenopausal women and except psychological symptoms there is minimal difference in the frequency and severity of other symptoms with duration. 

Keywords

• Menopause,Quality of life questionnaire,Menopause Rating Scale

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