A study on the prevalence of menopausal symptoms and its impact on quality of life among women aged 41 to 60 years in a rural area.

Introduction: Menopausal transition has an impact on health and well-being of women. Majority of rural women employed in manual labour, suffer from severe menopausal symptoms. Aim: To estimate the prevalence of menopausal symptoms among rural women and assess its association with sociodemographic factors. Materials and Methods: 166 random women attending OPD in a rural center were enrolled in this cross sectional study. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect background details, menstrual and menopausal history. Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) was used to assess the menopausal symptoms. Statistical Analysis Used: The prevalence of any one of the menopausal symptoms during the last month was calculated. A " Results: Mean age of women was 48.9 ± 6.4 years. The mean age at menopause was 47.8 ± 2.45 years. 96.6 percent of participants had any of 11 menopausal symptoms with somato-vegetative domain being the most commonly affected. Joint and muscular discomfort was the commonest symptom (92.8%). During the menopause transition phase, 69.3% had poor quality of life. Statistically significant associations were found in women from lower socioeconomic classes ( Conclusion: Majority of women (69.3%) having menopausal symptoms have poor quality of life. Improvement in the overall socioeconomic condition and focusing menopausal women in primary health care activities at field level will reduce the impact of menopausal symptoms.