Menopause Specific Quality of Life of Post-menopausal Women in Kotapola Medical Officer of Health Area

Abstract

Background: Menopause is a natural phenomenon experienced by women with different menopause-related discomforts. These discomforts lead to impairment of menopausal specific quality of life (MENQOL) that can be identified in four main domains: vasomotor, psychosocial, physical, and sexual. Objectives: To assess the MENQOL and socio-demographic and gynaecologic factors associated with MENQOL among postmenopausal women (PMW). Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done with 202 PMW in the Kotapola medical officer of health (MOH) area, Matara district. PMW who menopause naturally were selected with multi-stage cluster sampling. The data were collected using an interviewer administered questionnaires containing sociodemographic and gynaecologic information, and validated MENQOL questionnaire. Results: A majority of the participants (52.0%) were within the 50-60 age group. A majority experienced night sweat as the predominant menopausal symptom (n=141; 69.8%). The mean total MENQOL was 3.36 (±0.49). The highest impaired MENQOL was observed in the physical domain (2.02±0.32). The majority (71.8%) of PMW had low MENQOL, while 25.2% and 3.5% of PMW had moderate and high levels of MENQOL, respectively. Among the sociodemographic factors, only occupational status (p=0.01) was associated with MENQOL. Age of menarche (p<0.001), duration of menstruation period (p=0.002), had period of scanty bleeding (p<0.001), irregular menstruation (p=0.001), menopause age (p=0.001), number of children (p=0.015) and breast-feeding duration (p<0.001) had significant associations with MENQOL among the gynaecologic factors. Conclusions: Majority of PMW experienced low levels of MENQOL associated with occupational status, age of menarche, duration of menstruation period, menopausal age, number of children, and breast-feeding duration. MENQOL and associated factors provide clues for strategies for improving MENQOL in PMW.