ABSTRACT
Background and purpose: Hormonal changes, hot flush and peri-menopausal crises affect women's mental; health and predisposes them to depression. Hormone replacement therapy is applied to treat menopausal symptoms but its effect on depression is in question. Therefore / this research is Conducted to determine the effect of hormone replacement therapy on menopausal depression
Methods and Materials: In this quasi - experimental study 40 menopausal women from Mashad, with no history of hormone therapy psychiatric disorders and no Contraindication of hormone therapy, were selected and divided into 2 groups according to their own tendency. The experimental group received 0.625 mg conjugated estrogen and 2.5 mg medroxy progesterone acetate daily for six weeks; the control group received nothing. Sample selection checklists, demographic questionnaire, Beck's depression inventory, premenstrual syndrome test, Cassidy social support scale, Uzeng self- esteem, and attitudes toward menopause and hormone therapy were utilized for data collection. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS using independent and paired t- tests, as well as two - way ANOVA
Results: mean depression score at the outset for the control and experimental groups were 21.85???8.4 and 20.25???7.5 and at the end of the study 17.oo???8.7 and 15.5???7.6 respectively; this implied a significant difference in each group. However, the difference between the two groups was not significant
Conclusion: The results indicated no significant different in utilizing or not utilizing Hormone Replacement therapy on menopausal depression. Therefore, longitudinal and more extensive researches are recommended to Study the issue