ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: A high percentage of menopausal and perimenopausal women suffer symptoms that deteriorate their quality of life (QoL) significantly. Many studies have focused on the relationship between perimenopausal symptoms and QoL, yet the results obtained have been inconclusive. The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationships among the symptoms of menopause, sociodemographic variables, knowledge of menopause and QoL. METHOD: Sociodemographic and clinical data was collected from interviews of 453 women in Madrid, and they also completed questionnaires related to perimenopausal symptomatology (MRS, MENQOL), knowledge of menopause and QoL. RESULTS: Although dependent on the assessment techniques, all the tools used indicated that more than half of the women studied suffered perimenopausal symptomatology: interview (59.1%), MENQOL (69.2%) and MRS (65.1%). Stronger symptoms were related to a worse QoL (R2 = 0.287 for MENQOL; R2 = 0.390 for MRS), being psychosocial/psychological and urogenital/sexual symptomatology, and educational level and knowledge about menopause the most strongly related to this parameter. Taking into account the main perimenopausal symptoms in Europe, psychosocial and sexual symptoms are also found to be strongly related to QoL. CONCLUSION: Perimenopausal symptomatology is frequent and intense, deteriorating women's QoL. While psychosocial and somatic/physical symptoms are the most frequent and intense, psychosocial/psychological and urogenital/sexual are those that best predict the individual's QoL. Educational level and knowledge about menopause are also related to a better QoL.
