Prevalence of menopausal symptoms among rural women in Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: Menopause is a physiological process in women s life causing a variety of vasomotor, psychological, physical, and sexual symptoms. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of menopausal symptoms among rural women in Bangladesh. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted from 1st January to 31st December 2018 on 384 postmenopausal women aged 40-70 years and selected by convenience sampling in the rural areas of Faridpur District in Bangladesh. We used the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MENQOL) for measuring the prevalence of menopausal symptoms. SPSS software was used for data analysis. RESULTS: The mean age of menopause was 47.13 ± 4.30 years. Out of 384 postmenopausal women, the most common symptoms in the vasomotor domain were ‘sweating’ (98.2%) and ‘hot flushes’ (94.5%). In the psychological domain, the most common symptoms were ‘accomplishing less than I used to’ (99.7%) and ‘experiencing poor memory’ (98.2%). In the physical domain, the most common symptoms were ‘decreases in physical strength’ (100%), ‘feeling lack of energy’ (100%), ‘changes in appearance, texture, or tone of skin’ (100%), ‘decreased stamina’ (99.7%), ‘dry skin’ (99.7%), and ‘feeling tired or worn out’ (97.1%). Out of 60.9% married menopausal women, the most common symptoms in the sexual domain were ‘change in sexual desire’ (58.6%) and ‘avoiding intimacy’ (58.3%). CONCLUSION: Many of the menopausal symptoms were frequent except ‘increased facial hair’, ‘weight gain’, and ‘willing to be alone’, which were present in 2 (0.5%), 119 (31.0%), and 122 (31.8%) women, respectively