Psychological Aspects of Menopause

Historically, menopause research has developed mainly on the basis of endocrinological issues and research findings. The studies dealt primarily with the widespread complaints that women suffer in association with the menopause, with the intention of serv­ ing medical practice as directly as pos­ sible. In 1870, a woman’s mean remaining life expectancy by the time her young­ est child left home at the age of twenty was only six years. Today, a woman and mother lives for another three dec­ ades on average once her children have left the family. Therefore, the psy­ chological health status of this large female population is of considerable social relevance [1]. The Berlin Menopause Study pre­ sented here differs from other studies in that it did not interview patients from menopause clinics. Patient samples are subject to a considerable selective sys­ tematic sample error with regard to the overall female population. The results of major and methodologically estab­ lished studies with psychosocial ques­ tions concerning the menopause have been published in the European Menopause Journal or in Maturitas, among others [2–7]. In our Berlin Menopause Study [8], women from the population of Berlin (age 45–55 years) were studied, and later a nationwide study was con­ ducted with a representative sample of 600 women (age 47–59 years). The data collected in this later study shows major correlations with the results of the Berlin study presented here [9, 10]. The studies on menopause complaints [11] were continued in an evaluation of the Menopause Rating Scale MRS II, with a follow-up after 18 months [12]. We studied women in Berlin (a quasi­ healthy metropolitan sample) that were not necessarily receiving gynecological treatment during the study period, although they were all menopausal in all the other framework aspects. Thus we are able for the first time to report on the overall well-being spectrum of women (initially from a metropolitan area only).