Menopausal Symptoms and Menopausal Rating Scale among Midlife Women: A Hospital-based Study

Menopausal transition phase is a difficult time in a woman's life. Many factors such as age, socioeconomic status, education, ethnic cultural, and body physique determine the presence of menopausal symptoms. This study helps us to understand the severity and perseverance of menopausal symptoms in women of this locality.

The aim of the study was to find distribution and severity of menopausal symptoms by self-rated Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) through different transition phases of menopause in women aged between 40 and 60 years.

It is a hospital-based observational study. All the participants answered an 11-item MRS questionnaire.

Out of 300 participants, 106 belonged to premenopausal state, 111 to perimenopausal state, and 83 were postmenopause. Overall, 47% of participants had one or the other menopausal symptoms. Most of them had mild-to-moderate symptoms. Only 3% had severe symptoms. Somatic subscale was the maximum reported symptoms in our study group. The most common symptom was physical and mental exhaustion (55%) and the least common was sexual problems (8%). Difficulty in sleeping and bladder symptoms were more and statistically significant in postmenopausal group where as hot flushes and irritability were more common in perimenopausal group.

Somatic subscale symptoms are more common than urogenital or psychosocial subscales. Postmenopause women manifested higher symptoms than premenopause or perimenopause group women and most were mild to moderate in severity in women visiting our hospital.