An Overview of Menopausal Symptoms in A District Hospital of Nepal.

INTRODUCTION Menopause is a universal reproductive phenomenon which confirms the end of fertility of the women. The objectives of this study were to establish the age of natural menopause and to identify the prevalence of menopausal symptoms among the rural women attending district hospital of Nepal. METHODS This present study is a hospital based, observational cross-sectional study conducted in Outpatient department of Lamjung District Hospital, Lamjung, Nepal. The study was carried out from January 2014 till June 2014. Fifty four menopausal women were included in the study. A structured questionnaire was used and the data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences. RESULTS There were 54 participants with menopausal symptoms included in the study. Age ranged from 45 to 60 years with mean 51.2 years. Approximately seventy percentages of women were in age group of above 50 years. About two-third of participants had menarche in at 11 to 13 years of age and 32 (59.5%) of females were married before 15 years of age. In the study total 22 different health problems were reported by menopausal women. The most common symptoms were backache, fatigue/tiredness, numbness and tingling of the extremities, mental exhaustion, depressive mood, bladder problems and sexual symptoms. CONCLUSIONS The study suggests that rural middle-age and elderly women suffer from variety of health problems related to natural menopause. The health care workers should adopt a holistic approach towards management to improve the quality of life.