MEDIAN AGE AT MENOPAUSE IN A RURAL-POPULATION OF WESTERN KENYA

This was a cross sectional descriptive study to discuss the median age of menopause in a rural area of Western Kenya. The broad objective of the study was to describe the demographic. and biophysical characteri stics of the study population and determine the age of menopause, A re view of the current and medieval records shows average age of menopaus e has remained relatively constant at 50 years in contrast to the rece eding age of menarche. A total of 1078 women aged between 40-60 years were interviewed, The majority (98.8%) were from one ethnic group, the Luhya. Of the 1078 women, 880 (81.4%) were married and 198 (18.6%) we re single, The average number of children per woman was 7.74, Most of the women (75.1%) had attained primary school education. Their husband s were unskilled workers in 30.1% of the cases, The mean weight and he ight of the women was 60.74 kg and 161.1 cm respectively. Using method s of probit analysis, the median and modal age of menopause was found to he 48.28 years in this group of western Kenya women, If generalised for the whole country, these results suggest that an average Kenyan w oman lives for over ten ye ars beyond menopause, It is recommended tha t more attention should b. given to the special health problems of pos tmenopausal population.