Quality of Life after Menopause in Pakistani Women

Abstract

Background: With the increase in life expectancy of women all over the world, women are expected to spend almost 1/3rd of their life in menopause phase, usually starting in 4th to 5th decade of life.Objective: This study was planned to look for quality of life of women during menopause in Pakistan.Material and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Gynaecology and Obstetrics department of Lady Atchison Hospital, Lahore over a period of 3 months from June, 2015 to August, 2015. Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MENQOL) was distributed among 120 patients with the age range of 51-80 years presenting in Outdoor department of the institution. All the demographic details and MenQol results were analyzed. Also Odd’s ratio (OR) was calculated for these symptoms according to age groups of the patients.Results: The mean age of the patients was 60 ± 5.8 years. The mean age of patients at time of menarche was calculated as 13.4 ± 1.80 years and the mean age at menopause was 49.10 ± 3.98 years. We found that the most common symptom of the patients in our study was low backache and the least reported symptom was drying skin. The OR was also calculated for various symptoms according to age of the patients but it was found significant only (OR:10.9; (4.467 – 26.58) for vasomotor symptoms in our study.Conclusion: Menopausal symptoms may vary in different parts of the world. Therefore exact determination of these symptoms in our society is essential as it can help us to identify preventable factors and educate our women about their quality of life.