Menopausal Symptom Experience Among Middle Aged Women in Pokhara

Abstract

Introduction: Menopause is the point when a woman no longer has menstrual periods. At this stage, the ovaries have stopped releasing eggs and producing most of their estrogen. Menopause is diagnosed when a woman has gone without a period for 12 consecutive months. The aim of the study is to assess the menopausal symptoms experience among middle aged women.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among purposively selected 100 menopausal women in Fulbari-11, Pokhara using structured interview schedule. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, median, standard deviation, frequency) and Inferential statistics (chi-square) in SPSS version 20. Data were presented in tabular form.

Results: The findings revealed that 83 percent had mild symptoms experience. The most menopausal women experienced physical, psychological and sexual symptoms. The physical problems included as joint and muscular symptoms (80%), dryness of vagina (72%), bladder problems (60%), hot flushes (47%) and heart discomfort (43%). Similarly, the  common psychological problems included anxiety (79%) physical and mental exhaustion (72%), irritability (70%), depressive mood (67%), and sleeping problems (61%) and sexual problems (37%). Menopausal symptom experience is statistically significant to source of information and type of family.

Conclusions: The conclusion of this study is more than 60 percent menopausal women experienced menopausal symptoms. Joint and muscular problems, and psychological problems were the significant problems. Sexual problem is the least.