Menopausal symptoms and the awareness of menopausal-related information in low-income mid-aged women from Guayaquil, Ecuador

Abstract

Objective

To assess menopausal symptoms and determine awareness of menopausal related information in mid-aged women.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study in which 140 women aged 40 to 60 years from Guayaquil, Ecuador were surveyed with the short 10-item Cervantes Scale (CS-10) and a questionnaire containing personal data and questions assessing awareness of menopause related information.

Results

The mean age of the sample was 48.0 ± 5.6 years. More than half of surveyed women had low education and non-urban residency, none were on menopausal hormone therapy, 33.6% had hypertension, 35% were postmenopausal, 78.6% had an increased body mass index (overweight/obese) and 92.9% had abdominal obesity (waist > 88 cm). The average CS-10 score was 15.3 ± 9.0 with a median of 14.0. The three most frequent menopausal symptoms were muscle-joint pain (75.0%), changes in skin texture (74.3%) and vaginal dryness (71.4%). Regarding awareness of information related to the menopause, it was found that 98.6% of women had no idea about what the menopause is and the average age of its onset. Interestingly, although 61.4% knew that during the menopause there is weight gain, 57.9% were sedentary. Married, postmenopausal, older and less educated women presented higher mean total CS-10 scores. Contrarily, those with less awareness of menopause related information present lower scores.

Conclusion

In this low-income mid-aged female sample there was a high rate of non-awareness regarding information related to the menopause, including an unhealthy cardiometabolic profile. There is a need for educational programs aimed to increase awareness in this high-risk population in relation to the surveyed aspects in order to improve their health status and prevent chronic conditions.

Keywords:

• Menopausal symptoms
• 10-item cervantes scale
• awareness
• menopausal information
• menopause

Acknowledgment

The authors thank the participants and the authorities of the University General Hospital of Guayaquil (Guayaquil-Ecuador) for collaborating in the development of this study.

Authors’ contributors

D. Salazar-Pousada and P. Chedraui were involved in study conception and design. V. Ortega-Uscocovich carried out the surveys. P. Chedraui and C. Ramírez-Morán performed the statistical analysis. D. Salazar-Pousada and P. Chedraui performed drafting of the manuscript. All authors were involved in critically revising the manuscript for its intellectual content, and the final approval of the manuscript was performed by all authors.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare having no conflicts of interest. The preliminary data of this study were presented by P. Chedraui as a poster at the 20^th World Congress of Gynecological Endocrinology, May 11–14 2022, Florence, Italy.

Data availability statement

All required information regarding the study protocol and collected data will be made available upon request to researchers who provide a methodologically sound proposal. Only the analysis required to achieve the aims in the approved proposal will be permitted. Proposals should be directed to [email protected] Data requestors must sign a data access agreement form to gain access.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Sub-Sistema de Investigación y Desarrollo (SINDE) and the Vice-Rectorado de Investigación & Postgrado (VRIP) of the Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil, of Ecuador, through grant No. SIU # 552-54 provided to Danny Salazar-Pousada for the development of the project: “Conocimiento sobre la menopausia y presencia de síntomas climatéricos en mujeres de 40 a 60 años.”