A Comparative Study on Climacteric Symptoms of Natural Menopausal Women and Artificial Menopausal Women / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: To extend the understanding on climacteric symptoms, and to improve women's health and the quality of life by providing the basic data relating to the climacteric symptoms of natural menopausal women and artificial menopausal women. METHOD: The subjects of this study were 149 women selected conviniently (89 natural menopausal women and 60 total hystrectomy women) who have visited the climacteric clinic of G. hospital in Inchon, the MENSI questionnaire which was developed by Sarrel (1995)was modified considering Korean culture for the measuring tool of this study with 20 items of question(Cronbach'salpa =.76), duration of data collection with the questionnaire was 5 months from Sept. 1, 2000 to Jan. 30, 2001. Result: Artificial meanopausal women showed statistically significant higher menopausal symptoms than the natural menopausal women in the most of the items, and psychiatric and urogenital symtoms of artificial menopausal women were significantly higher than those of the natural menopausal women. CONCLUSION: Nursing intervention for psychological support upon artificial menopausal women and their spouses is recommended more than natural menpause women.

Prevalence of urinary incontinence in natural menopausal women at Siriraj Hospital.

400 natural menopausal women who attended gynecologic outpatient clinic, Siriraj Hospital between June 1997 to June 1998 were interviewed to identify the symptoms of urinary incontinence using the questionnaire which was already tested. The study revealed 188 women (47%) who had urinary incontinence symptoms. The most common type was stress urinary incontinence (28.50%) and the second was mixed urinary incontinence (10.75%). Nearly all of these incontinent women were classified as mild group and the symptoms last longer than 6 months. Most of the patients managed themselves by changing of their underwears. Only 31.4% of the cases sought physician consultations while the others did not. The most common reason for not seeking medical help is the embarrassing which effected 72.1% of cases. The most common adverse consequence to daily life found in these patients was social embarrassment which effected about 50% of cases.