Vasomotor symptoms and neurovegetative comorbidities on the menopause: insights from an Italian quantitative research

Abstract

Vasomotor symptoms (VMSs) are the most common symptoms affecting women during the menopause. Besides, affective symptoms may share with VMS a common biological pathophysiology. The current multicenter quantitative research was based on an online survey aimed to evaluate the impact of VMS in peri- and post-menopausal Italian women and to identify the main barriers to seeking help. The most frequent bothersome VMSs were hot flashes (41%), night sweats (31%), and over-heating (31%). Almost 87% of women experienced three or more simultaneous symptoms. Emotions verbalized by women indicate how intensely hot flushes and neuro-vegetative symptoms impact life: embarrassment, confusion, depression, impact on social/personal relationships, and guiltiness. Up to 43% of all women suffering from VMS were not treating the symptoms. Although 92% of women reported prior knowledge of the VMS condition, only 12% do something about it straight away after the appearance of VMS. This survey provided real-life observational data from a large population of peri-menopausal women and highlighted the important impact of VMS, its neurovegetative comorbidities and its significant burden effect on social life. Physicians must be more adaptive and inquisitive to evaluate and detect incipient VMS, as this will indicate the vulnerability to severe symptomatology and pathological brain aging.

Chinese abstract

血管舒缩症状（VMSs）是影响更年期女性最常见的症状。此外, 情感性症状可能与VMS有共同的生物学及病理生理学特征。目前的多中心定量研究是基于一项在线调查, 旨在评估VMS对围绝经期和绝经后意大利女性的影响, 并确定寻求帮助的主要问题。最常见的令人困恼的VMSs是潮热（41%）、盗汗（31%）和过热（31%）。几乎87%的女性同时出现三种或三种以上的症状。女性表达的情绪表明, 潮热和植物神经系统影响对生活的影响很严重：尴尬、困惑、抑郁、对社会/个人关系的影响、以及内疚感。高达43%的VMS患者没有治疗这些症状。虽然92%的女性表明事先知道VMS的情况, 但只有12%的女性在出现VMS后立即采取行动。这项调查提供了大量的围绝经期妇女实际观察数据, 并强调了VMS的重要性、及植物神经系统并发症对社会生活的显著负担效应。医生必须更有适应能力和好奇心来评估和检测早期的VMS, 因为这将表明患者易受严重症状和病理性神经系统衰老的影响。

Keywords:

• Vasomotor symptoms
• neurovegetative symptoms-hot flashes
• sweats
• over-heating
• menopause
• sexual relations
• quantitative survey
• brain aging

Acknowledgements

Manuscript writing and editorial support was provided by Emili González-Pérez, PhD from TFS Trial Form Support with financial support provided by Shionogi Srl (Italy) in accordance with Good Publication Practice (GPP3) guidelines (www.ismpp.org/gpp3). The study was sponsored by Shionogi Srl (Italy).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.