The clinical characteristics of Korean perimenopausal women

The purpose of this study was to evaluate characteristics of perimenopausal women in Korea. We divided 233 perimenopausal women into 4 groups by age. We asked them for their climacteric symptoms and measured bone mineral dens ities, biochemical markers of bone turnover, lipid profiles, total serum ca lcium and uric acid. The common symptoms of Korean menopausal women were ba ckache, arthralgia, hot flashes and urinary frequency in order of frequency . The bone mineral densities of climacteric women significantly decreased b y increasing age. The serum alkaline phosphatase among biochemical markers significantly increased by increasing age. The levers of HDL-cholesterol de creased tendency by increasing age. We think that Korean perimenopausal wom en were exposed to osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. Therefore as ma ny as subsequent studies have established, hormone replacement therapy (HRT ) will contribute to improving the quality of life for Korean perimenopausa l women.