Assessment of postmenopause symptoms and attitude toward menopause-related changes among women in rural and urban settings of North India

Source of Support: Nil, Conflict of Interest: None declared

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DOI: 10.4103/2231-4040.197331

Background: Menopause marks a significant physiological and psychological transformation in life of women. Based on the lifestyle and availability of medical resources, rural and urban settings have disparity in awareness regarding menopause. Objectives: The present study aims to assess the postmenopause symptoms and attitude toward menopause related changes among women in rural and urban settings of North India. Methods: A total of 400 postmenopause women who had menopause within the past 5 years were recruited in this study with 200 women from rural settings and 200 from urban settings. Women having menopause due to unnatural causes were excluded from the study. House to house survey was conducted at the randomly selected rural/urban locations. Participants were interviewed to assess postmenopause symptoms and attitudes toward menopauserelated changes. Results: The mean age of women was 51.52 ± 4.24 years and 51.04 ± 4.08 years in rural and urban settings, respectively. The knowledge and awareness about menopause before its onset came out to be 92% in rural settings and the figure is slightly higher in urban settings, that is, 98.5%. The most common vasomotor symptom in both rural/urban settings was hot flashes and night sweats; the most common urinary symptom was leakage of urine while coughing, vaginal irritation was significantly higher in women from urban settings while dryness in vagina was significantly higher in women from rural settings. Anxiety or irritability was the most common psychological symptom. Most of the women found to accept the menopause changes easily without any difficulty in both rural and urban settings. Conclusion: From the public health perspective, there is substantial scope to improve postmenopausal women’s quality of life by increasing health education about postmenopausal symptoms and its treatment by taking steps for lifestyle modifications.

Keywords: Behavior, postmenopause, public health, quality of life, women