Is there a menopausal syndrome? Menopausal status and symptoms across racial/ethnic groups

Avis, Nancy E.; Stellato, Rebecca K.; Crawford, Sybil L.; Bromberger, Joyce T.; Ganz, Patricia A.; Cain, Virginia S.; Kagawa‐Singer, Marjorie

doi:10.1016/s0277-9536(00)00147-7

Cited by 558 publications

(404 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Furthermore, a group of symptoms may have greater impact on health and well-being than individual symptoms. Thus, increasing interest has been generated in looking at subsets of symptoms that may form distinct clusters 32 and may respond better to treatment designed to address the cluster as a whole rather than individual symptoms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symptoms of Depressed Mood, Disturbed Sleep, and Sexual Problems in Midlife Women: Cross-Sectional Data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation

Prairie

Wisniewski

Luther

et al. 2015

Journal of Women's Health

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Background: Women report many nonvasomotor symptoms across the menopausal transition, including sleep disturbances, depressed mood, and sexual problems. The co-occurrence of these three symptoms may represent a specific menopausal symptom triad. We sought to evaluate the interrelatedness of disturbed sleep, depressed mood, and sexual problems in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) and determine the characteristics of women exhibiting this symptom triad. Methods: SWAN is a multisite, multiethnic observational cohort study of the menopausal transition in the United States. Sleep disturbance, sexual problems, and depressed mood were determined based on self-report. Women who reported all three symptoms simultaneously were compared to those who did not. Logistic regression models estimated the association of demographic, psychosocial, and clinical characteristics with the symptom triad. Results: Study participants (n = 1716) were 49.8 years old on average and primarily in very good or excellent health. Sixteen and a half percent had depressed mood, 36.6% had a sleep problem, and 42.2% had any sexual problem. Five percent of women (n = 90) experienced all three symptoms. Women with the symptom triad compared with those without had lower household incomes, less education, were surgically postmenopausal or late perimenopausal, rated their general health as fair or poor, and had more stressful life events and lower social support. Conclusions: The symptom triad of sleep disturbance, depressed mood, and sexual problems occurred in only 5% of women, and occurred most often among women with lower socioeconomic status, greater psychosocial distress, and who were surgically menopausal or in the late perimenopause.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symptoms of Depressed Mood, Disturbed Sleep, and Sexual Problems in Midlife Women: Cross-Sectional Data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation

Prairie

Wisniewski

Luther

et al. 2015

Journal of Women's Health

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“…Although HT is available for Hispanic menopausal women in industrialized countries, studies suggest that Hispanic women in the U.S. are among the ethnic groups least likely to use conventional hormone therapy (HT) (Avis, et al, 2001;Gavaler, 2002;Longworth, 2003;Laws & Carballeira, 2003;Mahady, Parrot, Lee, Yun, & Dan, 2003). In one study, only five nonsurgical peri-and postmenopausal women of the 130 Mexican-American women interviewed were using conventional hormone therapy, and in another U.S. study, only three of 20 MexicanAmerican women had ever tried HT (Bell, 1995;Kay, Voda, Olivas, Rios, & Imle, 1982).…”

Section: Treatment Options For Menopausementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet limited cross-cultural research on menopause suggests that attitudes and incidences of symptoms vary considerably depending on environment, health status and cultural paradigms around women's health (Avis, Stellato, Crawford, Bromberger, Ganz, Cain et al, 2001;Gold, Sternfeld, Kelsey, Brown, Mouton, Reame, et al, 2000;Sommer, Avis, Meyer, Ory, Madden, Kagawa-Singer et al, 1999). Data on menopause in Latin America come primarily from Mexico, and many studies suggest that Mexican women have more positive attitudes and less symptomatology as compared with those in the U.S. and Europe (Beyene, 1986;Martin, Block, Sanchez, Arnaud, & Beyene, 1993;).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symptoms, attitudes and treatment choices surrounding menopause among the Q’eqchi Maya of Livingston, Guatemala

Michel

Mahady

Veliz

et al. 2006

Social Science & Medicine

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The present study explored symptoms, attitudes and treatments surrounding women's health and menopause among the Q'eqchi Maya of the eastern tropical lowlands of Guatemala. Data were obtained through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and plant walks with 50 Q'eqchi community members from the state of Izabal, Municipality of Livingston, including 5 midwives, 5 traditional male healers and 8 postmenopausal women. Results indicate that the Q'eqchi Maya of Livingston possess their own cultural perceptions of women's health which affect attitudes, symptoms and treatment choices during the menopausal transition. Since discussions of menstruation and menopause are considered cultural taboos among the Q'eqchi, many women mentioned experiencing excessive preoccupation when unanticipated and unfamiliar symptoms occurred. Furthermore, many women suffered from additional hardship when their spouse misinterpreted menopausal symptoms (vaginal dryness, sexual disinterest) as infidelity. Seven of the eight postmenopausal women interviewed indicated experiencing one or more symptoms during the menopausal transition, including headaches, anxiety, muscular pain, depression, and hot flashes. These results differ from the lack of symptomatology reported in previous studies in Mexico, but are in line with the result of menopausal research conducted among other Maya groups from the highlands of Guatemala. Although the Q'eqchi did not use a specific term for "hot flash", three Q'eqchi women used the expression "baja presion" or a "lowering of blood pressure" to explain symptoms of profuse sweating followed by chills, heart palpitations, and emotional instability. The Q'eqchi Maya mentioned a number of herbal remedies to treat menopausal symptoms. Further research on these botanical treatments is needed in order to ascertain their safety and efficacy for continued use.

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“…In the search for etiology, huge efforts have been made to identify potential influences on symptomatology by aging progress, endocrine changes, demographic characteristics, psychosocial factors, environmental conditions, ethnic-difference as well as differences between countries. A clear etiologic relationship has been found between vasomotor symptoms/genital atrophic disorders and estrogen deficiency during women's menopausal period (3,4) . These symptoms are widely regarded as typical for menopause.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Background factors influencing somatic and psychological symptoms in middle-age women with different hormonal status

Borgfeldt

Samsioe

et al. 2005

Maturitas

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Access to the published version may require journal subscription.Published with permission from: Elsevier Methods: A total of 6917 women living in the Lund area of southern Sweden were participates of this study. They completed a generic questionnaire pertaining to sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle factors and current health related problems.According to hormonal status, the participants were subdivided into three groups, i.e.premenopause, postmenopause and peri-or postmenopausal women with hormone replacement therapy (HRT).Results: By using multiple logistic regression models, a high risk for somatic symptoms was independently associated with unemployment, no exercise, un-married, high body weight, and diseases affecting the cardiovascular system as well as a history of cancer. .Psychological symptoms were independently associated with higher educational level, unemployment, no exercise, un-married, heavy smoking habits (>15 cig/day), weight gain, and a history of cancer. In addition, the background factors seemed to have less impact on symptoms among women who used HRT. Conclusion:Socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors and concurrent health problems appear to have influences on the frequency and the number of somatic and psychological symptoms in middle-age women. Hormone replacement therapy seems to be able to counteract negative impacts caused by un-healthy lifestyle and other health problems.3 3

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Is there a menopausal syndrome? Menopausal status and symptoms across racial/ethnic groups

Cited by 558 publications

References 34 publications

Symptoms of Depressed Mood, Disturbed Sleep, and Sexual Problems in Midlife Women: Cross-Sectional Data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation

Symptoms of Depressed Mood, Disturbed Sleep, and Sexual Problems in Midlife Women: Cross-Sectional Data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation

Symptoms, attitudes and treatment choices surrounding menopause among the Q’eqchi Maya of Livingston, Guatemala

Background factors influencing somatic and psychological symptoms in middle-age women with different hormonal status

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