Age at menopause and the prevalence of menopausal symptoms among postmenopausal women in Kabale Municipality in South-Western Uganda.

BACKGROUND

Postmenopausal symptoms vary between individuals and cultures. There are limited data on postmenopausal symptoms among Ugandan women.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the age at natural menopause and the prevalence of menopausal symptoms among postmenopausal women in Kabale Municipality, in South-Western Uganda.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study on 218 postmenopausal women aged 45 to 65 years from Kabale Municipality to collect data on socio-demographics, reproductive history and menopausal symptoms. Statistical analyses comprised descriptive statistics, Shapiro-Wilk test and two-sample tests of proportions, with significance defined as P < 0.05.

RESULTS

The Median age at menopause was 45 years. 100 % of participants reported experiencing at least one menopausal symptom. Symptoms were most frequently reported in the somato-vegetative domain (98.6%) followed by the psychological domain (95.4%)and least frequently in the urogenital domain (93.6%). The most prevalent individual menopausal symptom was hot flushes (88.1%) and the least prevalent was dyspareunia (14.2%). 73% of participants reported depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study showed the highest prevalence of menopausal symptoms on the African continent. The most prevalent menopausal symptom is hot flushes and the least prevalent is dyspareunia. Urgent psychological support is needed to address the highly prevalent depressive symptoms.