Determination of the Usage of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Climacteric Period in North of Turkey

Abstract

This study was carried out in order to determine the usage of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for managing menopausal symptoms in climacteric period in North of Turkey . This descriptive study was carried out with a total of 281 women going through climacteric period who were admitted to the gynaecology polyclinic of a hospital in Samsun province between 27/08/2010 and 31/01/2011 . Data on general demographic characteristics, menopause-related symptoms, and the use of CAM and herbal therapy were collected. To evaluate the data, descriptive statistics, student’s t-tests, and logistic regression analysis were used. In this study the most common CAM methods were identified as herbal therapy (29.9%), dieting (29.5%), exercise (29.2%), and massage (27.8%). Approximately one third of the women were identified as benefitting from CAM methods; on the other hand, more than half were identified as not having informed a health care professional about this topic.