MENOPAUSAL SYMPTOMS IN AUSTRALIAN WOMEN

Objectives: To describe Australian-born women's experience of symptoms during the natural menopause transition and the relative contribution of menopausal and health status, social factors and lifestyle behavio urs. Design: A community based cross-sectional survey by telephone int erview was carried out on a randomly derived sample of Melbourne women . Participants: The participants were 2000 Australian-born women, aged between 45 and 55 years. Outcome measures: A list of 22 symptoms was used. Explanatory variables were: sociodemographic variables; menopaus al and health status; lifestyle behaviours; attitudes to ageing and to menopause. Results: A 70% response rate was achieved for eligible wom en who could be contacted during the study. Premenopausal women were t he least symptomatic and perimenopausal women the most symptomatic. Fa ctor analysis found seven common factors from the 22 symptoms studied. Menopausal status based on menstrual history was significantly relate d to two groups of symptoms: vasomotor symptoms, which increased throu gh the menopausal transition; and general somatic symptoms which were more frequent in the perimenopause. Analysis of variance of factor sco res found fewer symptoms with increasing years of education, better se lf-rated health, the use of fewer non-prescription medications, the ab sence of chronic health conditions, a low level of interpersonal stres s, the absence of premenstrual complaints, not currently smoking, exer cise at least once a week, and positive attitudes to ageing and menopa use. Conclusions: Many factors unrelated to hormonal changes contribut ed to the symptoms. Longitudinal investigation is needed to determine the relative importance of hormonal, psychosocial and lifestyle variab les in the aetiology of mid-life symptoms.