Post-menopausal symptoms: Reports from urban women

Menopause is a universal occurrence. Menopause refers to that time when woman's periods stop and her ovaries lose their reproductive function. Usually, this occurs between the age group of 45 and 55 years. A descriptive study was undertaken on post-menopausal symptoms among women in the selected urban community, Amritsar. This study included 100 post-menopausal women who were recruited by the convenient sampling technique. Tools for the data collection consisted of socio-demographic profile and the Standardised Women Health Questionnaire related to post-menopausal symptoms. The findings revealed that the mean age of post-menopausal women in the study was 64.13 ± 8.92 years, whereas the mean age at menopause was 47.11 ± 3.66 years. Majority (80%) of post-menopausal women had backache, followed by 76% had loss of appetite, 71% reported restlessness, 68% had difficulty in getting to sleep, and 64% felt miserable and sad. The findings of the study reveal that more than half (52%) of post-menopausal women were not able to cope up with symptoms and 43% agreed to have overall good quality of life. A large proportion of post-menopausal women also reported loss of appetite, loss of interest in things, dizzy spells, headache and poor memory. A larger study is required to generalise the findings.