Symptom experience in Australian men and women in midlife

To compare the experience of vasomotor, psychological and somatic symptoms in Australian men and women in midlife, to investigate whether symptoms often attributed to endocrine changes in midlife are associated with health and psychological well-being, and to evaluate their relationship to menopausal status in women.

A cross-sectional, correlational, population-based study based on self-report questionnaires. Participants comprised 451 men and 766 women, aged between 39 and 65, from urban and rural South Australia, who responded to invitations to participate, or who volunteered to participate following media releases. Outcome measures used comprised a 47-item symptom checklist of current presence and severity of vasomotor, somatic and psychological symptoms experienced by men and women during midlife, and measures of health and psychological well-being.

The majority of men and women reported that they were not 'bothered' by vasomotor, psychological and somatic symptoms. For those symptoms in which men and women differed significantly, women generally reported being more 'bothered' than men, although the pattern of association between symptoms and measures of health and psychological well-being was the same for both men and women. Items from all three symptom clusters were independently related to menopausal status.

Health and psychological well-being play a role in the genesis of symptoms experienced by men and women in midlife. Both men and women experience similar symptoms, although women are more distressed by them signifying support for a menopausal syndrome in women. The finding of an independent relationship between menopausal status and psychological and somatic symptoms, in addition to the vasomotor symptoms, contradicts the narrow-estrogen hypothesis of climacteric symptoms.