Effect of Menopausal Symptoms on Women's Quality of Life in Benha City (Egypt) and Arar City (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia),GEHAD M. ABO EL MATTY, SAMIA ABD EL-HAKEEM and GALILA S. EL-GANZORY
Abstract
Objective: This research aims to study the Effect of menopausal symptoms (M.S) on women's Quality of life (QOL) in Benha city (Egypt) and Arar city (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), this aim achieved through:
•Investigate the severity of menopausal associated with menopausal status.
•Determine the quality of life of menopausal women from two country in Benha City (Egypt) and Arar City (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).
Material and Methods: This research is a descriptive study conducted in Egypt & Saudi Arabia, Hyderabad division from November 2009 to Jule 2010. Among 220 menopausal women.
Study Design: Descriptive study design, sample type, convenient sample, 120 menopausal women from Benha in Egypt & 100 menopausal women from Arar in Saudi Arabia, attending to eight primary health care units for different reasons within the age range of 35-54 years.
Result: The mean age at Menopause was 46.35±4.8 years; in Egypt and the mean age in Saudi Arabia was 49.9±2.23. About one third of the sample (32.4%) experience menopausal symptoms between 50-54 years while (13.3%) of the sample reached menopause before 40 years old in study sample (Egypt) no finding any result in Saudi Arabia reached meno-pause before 40 years old in study sample. The prevalence rate of M.S was (95%) among menopausal women and half of them suffered of moderated M.S.
Most menopausal women tend to seek medical care for physical symptoms only and neglect other symptoms especially sexual symptoms. Statistical significant relation was found between M.S. and level of education, occupation, marital status and family income and between QOL and level of education, marital status and family income. While non statistical significant relationships were detected between M.S and QOL and between coping mechanism and level of education, occupation and QOL.
Conclusion: This study revealed that M.S negatively affected women's QOL and recommended that developing and disseminating education material to raise community’s awareness about menopausal needs (especially psychological needs and nutrition), and possibility of symptomatic treatment. The best of our knowledge this is the first attempt to provide data on menopause and quality of life of women in both country. The severity of menopausal decrease the quality of life in every day of these women.