Assessment of menopausal symptoms in different transition phases using the Greene Climacteric Scale among rural women of North India

Abstract

Background: Menopause is the universal physiological process of women’s midlife and exhibits a wide variety of symptoms. However, there is little data on the menopausal symptoms and factors associated with their severity among rural Indian women.

Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of menopausal symptoms during the different transition phases of menopause among rural women of North India.

Subjects and methods: This cross-sectional study consisted of 351 women aged 35–55 years (mean age 44.6 years) residing in rural areas of North India. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data regarding menopausal status, demographic profile and reproductive history of the participants. Frequency and severity of menopausal symptoms were evaluated using the Greene Climacteric Scale in different stages of menopause. All statistical procedures were accomplished using SPSS version 19.0.

Results: In the present study the mean ages of attainment of menarche and menopause were 14.3 years and 47.2 years, respectively. Mean score of total Greene Climacteric Scale was highest among perimenopausal women (16.12 ± 8.1) over post-menopausal (14.78 ± 7.3) and pre-menopausal women (11.08 ± 6.1). Logistic regression analysis revealed that advancing age, low educational attainment, low socioeconomic status, menopausal status, later age at menarche and higher BMI were all associated with more severe menopausal symptoms.

Conclusion: The climacteric symptoms were more prevalent among women who were perimenopausal followed by post-menopausal women and were the lowest in pre-menopausal women. Age, menopausal status, socio-economic status, and reproductive factors significantly influenced the severity of menopausal symptoms.

Keywords:

• Socio-economic scale (SES)
• Greene climacteric scale (GCS)
• perimenopause
• menopausal symptoms

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Associate Professor Ashwani Kumar Thakur, Indian Institute of Kanpur, India for allowing us to use the SPSS for the analysis of the data. The authors would also like to acknowledge late Professor K.D. Sharma, Department of Anthropology, Panjab University.

Disclosure statement

Monika Thakur, Dr Maninder Kaur and Professor Anil Kishore Sinha declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

Authors acknowledge the University Grants Commission Basic Scientific Research (UGC-BSR) for providing the fellowship and contingency to carry out the field research, and most of all, the study participants who made this study possible.