Pattern and severity of menopausal symptoms experienced by middle-aged Nigerian women attending the family medicine clinic of the university of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, north-Central Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The burden of caring for women experiencing severe menopausal symptoms is increasing due to increasing life expectancy globally, and partly due to more awareness of its tremendous impacts on their quality of life. The aim of the study was to describe the pattern and severity of menopausal symptoms among middle-aged women attending a clinic in Nigeria with a view to early detection of symptoms and appropriate management.

Methods: It was a cross-sectional study involving 322 women between 40 to 60 years of age. Data was collected using mainly the Menopausal Rating Scale, and data analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Version 21 statistical software.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 48 ± 5 years, and 60.0% of them were postmenopausal. The overall prevalence of menopausal symptoms among the participants was 51.1% and the top-three most prevalent menopausal symptoms among them were joint discomfort (83.9%), physical exhaustion (67.4%), and depressive mood (64.0%). However, anxiety, hot flushes, and sleep problems were found to be the most severe menopausal symptoms among them with prevalence of 77.3%, 74.5%, and 62.1% respectively.

Conclusion: We have provided evidence that middle-age Nigerian women suffer menopausal symptoms similar in pattern and severity to the ones reported in studies among African, African-American, Asian, and South-American women. Consequently, we suggest that middle-aged women should be screened regularly for menopausal symptoms so that those with severe symptoms can be