Validation of the Menopause Transition Scale (MTS)

Area of Science:

• Women's Health
• Reproductive Endocrinology
• Clinical Assessment

Background:

• Menopause transition affects all women, often with symptoms impacting quality of life.
• Existing menopause symptom scales are lengthy, clinically worded, and not easily digitized.
• There is a need for a concise, patient-centered tool for assessing menopause symptoms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate a novel, short, patient-centric questionnaire for assessing menopause transition symptoms.
• To develop a reliable survey that accurately reflects women's experiences during menopause.
• To create a tool suitable for digital implementation in outpatient settings.

Main Methods:

• Developed the Menopause Transition Scale (MTS), a patient-centric questionnaire.
• Recruited 144 women with menopause symptoms (72 cancer patients, 72 controls).
• Assessed internal consistency (Cronbach Alpha) and dimensionality (factor analysis), and cross-validated against established scales (Spearman correlations, Chi-Square).

Main Results:

• The MTS demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach Alpha = 0.63) and loaded into three domains.
• MTS scores correlated significantly with established scales like the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire and Greene Climacteric Scale.
• Key symptoms identified included low libido, poor energy, and hot flashes/night sweats.

Conclusions:

• The MTS is a brief, patient-centered survey validated for measuring menopause symptoms.
• The MTS is well-suited for digital adoption in outpatient settings.
• Further research is recommended for longitudinal symptom assessment and therapeutic response evaluation.