Measuring Climacteric Symptoms: A Community based Study among Lotha Females of Nagaland

Abstract

 Background: The overall health and well-being of the mid-aged women has become a major 
public health concern around the world. Before and after the onset of menopause, women expe
rience physical or psychological symptoms which affect the overall health leading to decrease 
in Quality of Life (QoL).
 Objective: To measure the climacteric symptoms and risk factors. 
Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional data was collected on a sample of 202 adult females. 
Data was collected by multi-stratified sampling method. The subjects ranged in age from 35-60 
years. Data was collected on socio-demographic aspects, health, quality of life and physiologi
cal parameters. 
Results: The mean and median age of the subject was 48.3±7.6 and 49 years respectively. The 
mean and median age of pre-menopausal females was found to be 41.2±4.6 and 41 years re
spectively and of post-menopausal females it was 54.2±3.5 and 54 years respectively. Among 
pre-menopausal females higher percentage of headache was found whereas among post-meno
pausal females sexual dysfunction was found to be the most prevalent symptom. Highly sig
nificant values were found for all the menopausal symptoms in clusters, sub-clusters and to
tal Greene score among post-menopausal females. For the severity of menopausal symptoms, 
post-menopausal females who had low quality of life were found to be at higher risk for devel
oping all the menopausal symptoms. 
Conclusion: In the present study, factors like family size, health status and age at menarche line 
were found to be the risk factors for menopausal symptoms. Females having low quality of life 
were also seen to have higher menopausal symptoms.