Mental Health and Quality of Life in Perimenopausal and Menopausal Women : Quality of Life in Women.

Although menopause is a normal process, it causes a number of symptoms that affect women's health and quality of life (QoL). Furthermore, mental health problems, including depression and anxiety, in peri- and postmenopausal women are a major public health concern. The aim of this research study was to investigate menopausal symptoms and their association with mental health and quality of life. A cross-sectional study involving 78 women aged 36-58 years who were in the perimenopause or menopause was conducted. The instruments used were the Greek versions of the Menopausal Rating Scale (MRS), the Depression, Stress and Anxiety Assessment Scale (DASS-21), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQoL-BREF). According to the results, menopausal symptoms were found to be of low overall severity, a small proportion (7.8%) have mild depressive symptoms and mild anxiety symptoms (9.1%), and all scales of women's quality of life show high mean values, indicating a good to fairly good quality of life. The most important findings of the study are the statistically significant negative correlations between almost all dimensions of the DASS-21 scale and the WHOQoL-BREF dimensions, and between almost all dimensions of the MRS scale and the dimensions of the WHOQOL-BREF scale. In our study, menopause was not associated with poor quality of life at a general level; however, it was confirmed to have a statistically significant negative effect on quality of life, depending on the severity of symptoms and the coexistence of other complications such as depression.