Knowledge, practices and beliefs of women regarding hormonal replacement therapy [HRT] during perimenopausal period

ABSTRACT

Hormonal Replacement Therapy [HRT] has an established role in improving menopausal symptoms reducing cardiovascular risk and preventing osteoporosis. Therefore, an exploratory descriptive study was carried out to identify women's knowledge, practices and beliefs regarding HRT during perimenopausal period. A questionnaire sheet was designed, validated and utilized by the researchers to collect the necessary data from a convenient sample of 100 perimenopausal employee women. A scoring system was adopted for women's knowledge, practices and beliefs regarding HRT. The results revealed that a sizeable proportion of perimenopausal women had lack of knowledge about HRT Sources of perimenopausal women's knowledge about HRT were mainly from mass media [63.8%]. In relation to practices of HRT, the results clarified that only 13% of perimenopausal women used HRT. Although most of HRT users [92.3%] used it to relieve their perimenopausal symptoms, yet, 76.9% of them reported that it didn't affect their perimenopausal symptoms. Perimenopausal women's practices of HRT were affected by their age, marital status and education, while their beliefs were affected by education and menstruation. A negative correlation was found between knowledge and practices [r =- 0.152], while a moderate positive correlation was found between knowledge and beliefs [r. = 0.416]. On the other hand, no correlation was found between practices and beliefs [r= 0.000]. Therefore, there is a need to incorporate the health care of perimenopausal women within the reproductive health care system