Menopausal symptoms: Do life events predict severity of symptoms in peri- and post-menopause?

摘要

Objective: Hormonal changes during menopausal transition are linked to physical and psychologicalsymptoms’ emergence. This study aims to explore if life events predict menopausal symptoms.Methods: This cross-sectional research encompasses a community sample of 992 women who answeredto socio-demographic, health, menopause-related and lifestyle questionnaires; menopausal symptomsand life events were assessed with validated instruments. Structural equation modeling was used to builda causal model.Results: Menopausal status predicted only three symptoms: skin/facial hair changes (B = .136; p = .020),sexual (B = .157; p = .004) and, marginally, vasomotor symptoms (B = .094; p = .054). Life events predicteddepressive mood (B =−.391; p = .002), anxiety (B =−.271; p = .003), perceived cognitive impairment(B =−.295; p = .003), body shape changes (B =−.136; p = .031), aches/pain (B =−.212; p = .007), skin/facialhair changes (B =−.171; p = .021), numbness (B =−.169; p = .015), perceived loss of control (B =−.234;p = .008), mouth, nails and hair changes (B =−.290; p = .004), vasomotor (B =−.113; p = .044) and sexualsymptoms (B =−.208; p = .009).Conclusions: Although women in peri- and post-menopausal manifested higher symptoms’ severity thantheir pre-menopausal counterparts, only three of the menopausal symptoms assessed were predicted bymenopausal status. Since the vast majority of menopausal symptoms’ severity was significantly influencedby the way women perceived their recent life events, it is concluded that the symptomatologyexacerbation, in peri- and post-menopausal women, might be due to life conditions and events, ratherthan hormonal changes (nonetheless, the inverse influence should be investigated in future studies).Therefore, these should be accounted for in menopause-related clinical and research settings.