QUALITY OF LIFE IN WOMEN IN CLIMACTERIUM

Abstract

Climacterium is a biological transition period associated with somato-vegetative, psychological and urogenital problems, individual for each woman. The measurement of the symptoms and the assessment of the health of the women in this period, depending on their subjective sensations, is done with specific rating scales. They are not yet widely applicable in scientific and practical activities, but are extremely important in modern social and medical science.
The purpose of the present study was to analyze the prevalence of typical climacteric symptoms and their impact on quality of life in women aged 40 to 60 years, given the characteristics of their menstrual cycle. A cross-sectional study of 306 women for the period January-March 2020 in the city of Sofia was conducted. A specific MRS (menopausal rating scale) questionnaire was used to assess the quality of life in an electronic version in Bulgarian language.
The statistical package SPSS version 13.0 was used to process the survey data. The software version Windows 10 was used for tabular presentation of the results.
The results of the study show that the most common symptoms with moderate to very severe manifestations in the group of women surveyed in the perimenopausal stage are: irritability (50%), anxiety (50%), physical and mental fatigue (45.5%) . The most common symptoms in the group of postmenopausal women are: sleep problems (71.2%), joint and muscle problems (67.8%), physical and mental fatigue (66.7%). The average scores in the subscales in perimenopausal respondents show the following results: moderate severity of symptoms in the psychological subscale (5.97 ± 3.37 points) and mild somato-vegetative (3.82 ± 2.01 points) and urogenital scale (0. 94 ± 0.58). In the group of postmenopausal respondents, a moderate course of symptoms was reported in the three subscales, with the highest score in the somatovegetative subscale (7.32 ± 4.09 points).
According to these results, we conclude that changes and symptoms in climacrerium have a negative impact on the physical and mental health of women and adversely affect their quality of life. The increased life expectancy of women worldwide, as well as in Bulgaria, predetermines the special significance of their transition to the age of estrogen deficiency. It is necessary for health professionals to systematically assess the diverse symptoms of the climacteric phenomenon in order to provide adequate preventive care to protect and optimize the health of women at this stage of their lives.