Prevalence of symptoms and associated factors across menopause status in Taiwanese women

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of symptoms and associated factors in Taiwanese women calling a menopause hotline. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive, epidemiological study was performed on 20,882 women aged 40 to 89 years registered in the menopause consultation database of the nationwide toll-free consultation hotline for menopause-related issues from January 2006 to December 2016. The data included demography, sources of menopausal health care, and menopause/midlife symptoms scale. Results: The mean menopausal age was 49.6 +/- 4 years. The prevalence of the symptoms increased with the progress of the menopausal stages, and the differences between stages were significant. The top five symptoms reported on a menopause hot line were memory loss (66.9%), fatigue (66.5%), insomnia (59.6%), depressed mood (58.5%), and back pain (58.2%). Of the women, 23.5% did visit a medical facility for menopausal problems mainly the department of gynecology. More than half of the women (56.4%) opted for medical personnel as the preferred channel for obtaining information concerning menopause. Women who had a higher education level, were single, had no children, were not experiencing the empty-nest phenomenon, were employed, had no chronic disease, were premenopausal, had never received hormone therapy, and had not visited medical facilities scored the lowest in menopause/midlife symptoms. Conclusions: Compared with premenopausal and perimenopausal women, postmenopausal women experience the most severe symptoms. Therefore, establishing a menopause consultation hotline answered by medical personnel and implementing support for postmenopausal women to obtain strategies to alleviate symptoms are required and necessary.

Automated summary

The study found that the prevalence of symptoms in Taiwanese women calling a menopause hotline increased with the progress of menopausal stages, with memory loss, fatigue, insomnia, depressed mood, and back pain being the top five reported symptoms. Women with higher education levels, who were single, had no children, were not experiencing the empty-nest phenomenon, were employed, had no chronic diseases, were premenopausal, had never received hormone therapy, and had not visited medical facilities scored the lowest in menopause/midlife symptoms. Postmenopausal women had the most severe symptoms compared to premenopausal and perimenopausal women, highlighting the need for a menopause consultation hotline and support for postmenopausal women to alleviate symptoms.