An epidemiological study of the perimenopausal and menopausal health problems in women living in an urban area of Mumbai, Maharashtra

Abstract

Background: Menopause is a transitional period of changing role and status of women from reproductive to post reproductive age. It occurs due to decrease in level of oestrogen, which leads to multiple menopausal symptoms. The objectives were to study the health and psychological problems associated with menopause and to study the relation of health and psychological problems with age, marital status, socio-economic status, parity and tobacco use.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out amongst women in the age group of 40 to 50 years during the period of February 2012 to February 2013 to know the epidemiological profile of peri and postmenopausal women. The study information of the women was collected by personal interview technique by home visits. Results: The average age at menopause amongst the study subjects was 45 yrs. The most common problem faced by the respondents was somatic symptoms. Among those the most common was muscle joint pains 65.1%. This study found significant association in marital status, parity, tobacco chewing and increased the occurrence of menopausal symptoms. Conclusions: There is a high burden of menopausal symptoms in women and the menopausal symptoms are affected by various socio-demographic factors like marital status, parity, tobacco chewing.

Menopause Related Health Problems and Quality of Life of Menopausal Women from Urban Slums of Western Maharashtra: An Observational Study

“…The mean age of menopause observed in our study was 45.73 years. This is almost comparable to the report of Jadhav et al 14 A study was done in Manipal, Karnataka, in 2009 among 352 postmenopausal women reported mostly physical and psychosocial symptoms such as "aching in muscle and joints" (67.7%), followed by "gets tired easily" (64.8%), "poor memory" (60.5%), "lower backache" (58.8%) to "feeling bloated" (55.1%) as the most common symptoms. The least common symptom was "increased facial hair" (15.3%), which is like the present study.…”

“…11,12 MENQOL questionnaire is a validated instrument used to measure health-related quality of life in middle-aged women in the years beyond the onset of menopause. It consists of 29 items grouped into four domains: vasomotor (1-3), psychosocial (4-10), physical (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26) and sexual (27-29) [8][9][10] . For frequency of the MENQOL symptoms, participants were asked to rate whether they had experienced the symptom in the past month.…”

Experience and Perceptions Regarding Menopause among Rural Women

“…Two-thirds of the peri-menopausal women in our study reported at least one symptom of menopause, the most common menopausal symptoms being joint and muscular pains, hot flushes, irritability, and anxiety. This has been similarly reported among urban-dwelling women living in Mumbai[ 8 ] and Lucknow,[ 9 ] women in rural Kerala,[ 3 ] and among mid-life school teachers in Bhopal city. [ 16 ] Symptoms reported by our study participants were predominantly somatic and psychological symptoms, rather than urogenital symptoms.…”

“…Our study population was perimenopausal women attending the hospital (availing health services or accompanying or visiting patients). Based on a previous study, where the prevalence of symptoms of menopause among perimenopausal women was 71%,[ 8 ] with 10% relative precision, 95% confidence level, and 20% nonresponse rate, the sample size was estimated to be 189 and was rounded off to 200. Consecutive sampling technique was used.…”

Evaluation of the Efficacy and Safety of Rheum rhaponticum Root Extract (ERr 731) for Menopausal Symptoms in Perimenopausal Indian Women

“…[ 3 ] MS and VMS are experienced by 63%–70% of western women[ 4 ] and nearly 60% of Indian women. [ 5 ]…”