Assessment of menopausal symptoms using modified Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) among middle age women in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract

BackgroundMenopausal symptoms can be assessed by several tools, and can be influenced by various socio-demographic factors.ObjectivesTo determine the commonly reported menopausal symptoms among Sarawakian women using a modified Menopause Rating Scale (MRS).MethodsBy using modified MRS questionnaire, 356 Sarawakian women aged 40-65 years were interview to document of 11 symptoms (divided into somatic, psychological and urogenital domain) commonly associated with menopause.ResultsThe mean age of menopause was 51.3 years (range 47 - 56 years). The most prevalent symptoms reported were joint and muscular discomfort (80.1%); physical and mental exhaustion (67.1%); and sleeping problems (52.2%). Followed by symptoms of hot flushes and sweating (41.6%); irritability (37.9%); dryness of vagina (37.9%); anxiety (36.5%); depressive mood (32.6%). Other complaints noted were sexual problem (30.9%); bladder problem (13.8%) and heart discomfort (18.3%). Perimenopausal women (n = 141) experienced higher prevalence of somatic and psychological symptoms compared to premenopausal (n = 82) and postmenopausal (n = 133) women. However urogenital symptoms mostly occur in the postmenopausal group of women.ConclusionsThe prevalence of menopausal symptoms using modified MRS in this study correspond to other studies on Asian women however the prevalence of classical menopausal symptoms of hot flushes, sweating was lower compared to studies on Caucasian women.

Current scenario of menopause-related symptoms using menopause rating scale among middle-aged women of Western India: A cross-sectional study

“…[3] Studies conducted at various other countries showed mean age of menopause slightly higher as compared to Indian studies, Malaysia (51.2 years), Thailand (48.7 years), and Singapore (49.1 years). [12][13][14] Menopause-related symptoms assessed by present study were quite similar to other studies. In the study conducted at Bihar [15] using same rating scale, 112 (40.1%) women found to have episodes of hot flashes, sweating, and/or night sweats in the preceding 4 weeks.…”

The Quality of Life During and After Menopause Among Rural Women

“…A study which was done by Rahman et al, showed that the urogenital symptoms were significantly higher in the postmenopausal group as compared to those in the menopause transition group. The psychological symptoms were significantly higher among the perimenopausal women as compared to those among the postmenopausal women [27]. In our study, the vasomotor symptoms and the sexual symptoms were more prominent in the menopause transition group than in the early and late post menopausal groups.…”

Quality of life among menopausal women

“…In addition Ashrafi et al (2010) [29] showed that night sweats, joint and muscle pain and hot flashes are the most common symptoms associated with menopause in Iranian women. These findings were also noted by Rahman et al (2010) [30] emphasized that the frequency of sexual problems, bladder problems and vaginal dryness were experienced mainly by premenopausal and postmenopausal group of women and it was also significant statistically in comparison to other menopausal status. The most prevalent psychosocial symptom in the present study was; poor memory that agrees with results of many studies, which indicated that the most common and severe symptom that was reported by women was poor memory [25,31,32] .…”