Prevalence of menopausal related symptoms and their impact on quality of life among Egyptian women

Abstract

To assess the prevalence of menopausal-related symptoms and to evaluate their impact on quality of life (QoL) among a sample of menopausal women from Egypt.A cross-sectional hospital-based study conducted at the Gynecology department, Suez Canal University, Ismailia - Egypt. A total 1,214 women aged 40 - 70 years were recruited and studied using an interview questionnaire. The questionnaire contains four main items: socio-demographic data, menstruation status assessment, modified Menopausal Rating Scale (MRS), and World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire.Mean age was 48.1 ± 10.3 years, with 26.6% of the studied participants were illiterates. According to menstruation status, 40.9% of the studied women were postmenopausal, 41.4% were premenopausal, while 17.7% were perimenopausal. Most of the studied participants have mild/moderate somatic symptoms. Mild/moderate depressive mode, irritability, and anxiety have been reported in 63%, 58.4%, and 58.2% of women, respectively. Postmenopausal women have significantly higher scores on MRS except for urogenital score that was higher in perimenopausal women. They also had significantly lower QoL score in all subscales of WHOQOL-BREF except for psychological domain that was lowest among perimenopausal women. MRS total score has significant negative correlation to all domains of WHOQOL questionnaire.Postmenopausal women have higher prevalence of menopausal symptoms that significantly affect their quality of life more than pre- and perimenopausal women. Those in the transition period (perimenopausal) have higher prevalence of psychological symptoms with higher impact on their psychological welfare.