Women with premature ovarian failure using hormone therapy do not experience increased levels of depression, anxiety and stress compared to controls.

Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate anxiety, depression and stress of POI women using hormone therapy. MethodsA quantitative cross-sectional study included 61 women diagnosed with POI receiving HT, and 61 women with preserved ovarian function, matched 1:1 for age (control group). Instruments used to evaluate depression, anxiety and stress were Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Lipp's Stress Symptom Inventory (LSSI). The chi-square or Fisher's exact tests, Mann-Whitney test, Spearman's correlation coefficient or logistic regression analysis with stepwise criteria were used for analysis. ResultsThe mean age of POI women and control group was 35.03±7.68 and 34.49±7.55 years old (p = 0.63). POI group and control group had a mean of 0.44±0.92 and 1.28±1.38 children (p = 0,001); the total BDI, BAI and LSSI scores were 15.72±11.68 and 13.66±8.44 (p = 0.64); 17.54±13.16 and 17.25±11.05 (p = 0.90), 19.39±12.08 and 18.93±11.21 (p = 0.945). The majority of women did not have depression or presented mild depression, but approximately one-third had moderate-severe undiagnosed depressive or anxiety symptoms. In POI group, depression was positively correlated with the number of children and anxiety. Anxiety and stress were also positively correlated. It was observed that for each point in the BDI, the risk of stress above 20 increased 19.6%, while for each point in the BAI, the risk of greater stress increased 32.4%. LimitationsThis is a cross-sectional study, which made it impossible to draw cause and effect conclusions ConclusionWomen with POI receiving HT have indexes of depression, anxiety and stress similar to the population of women with preserved ovarian function.