Age of Menopause and Menopausal Symptoms among women attending Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, Guwahati, Assam: A cross-sectional study

This crosssectional study was conducted for a period of one year on 200 postmenopausal women attending Gynaecology outpatient department to evaluate the age at menopause and prevalence of menopausal symptoms, also to determine the awareness and attitude towards menopause and the treatment seeking behavior among these women. Eligible women were interviewed using a pretested, self-designed oral, interview based questionnaire. In the present study the mean age at menopause was 46.35(Standard deviation = 4.07) years. 80.5% of women had one or more menopausal symptoms. The common symptoms of menopause seen in this study were muscle and joint pain (63%), fatigue (55.5%), hot flush (52.5%) , insomnia( 52%) followed by night sweat (48.5%). Other comorbid conditions were found to be hypertension 23%, dyslipidemia 14%, diabetes 9% and arthritis 24.5% women. Vasomotor, psychosomatic and urogenital symptoms were more prevalent among women in the early postmenopausal period whereas psychological symptoms were more prevalent in the late postmenopausal period. Majority of the women 63.5% were unaware about menopause. About 58.5% perceived menopause in a positive attitude. Only 30.5% took treatment for menopausal symptoms. Education, occupation, lifestyle and income had statistically significant association with menopausal symptoms. The high prevalence of menopausal symptoms observed in this study proves that menopausal symptoms are common but due to lack of awareness, they do not seek medical advice. Hence priority lies on generating awareness among women about menopause and menopausal symptoms and establishment of dedicated menopause clinic to help these women live a healthy and comfortable life.