Background: The transition through menopause is a life event that can profoundly affect quality of life. More than 80% of women report physical and psychological symptoms that commonly accompany menopause, with varying degrees of severity and life disruption. Studies find that most women experience at least one or more of these symptoms as they transition through the postmenopausal stage of life. The aim of this study was to assess the menopause related symptoms and their impact on the women's quality of life. Subjects and methods: A descriptive design was carried out in Obstetrics and Gynecological department at maternity and children hospital in Makkah Al Mukkarrmah.. Convenient sample composed of 90 women at range of from 40-60years were recruited in the study. Interviewing sheet that was designed by the investigators and Menopause Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MENQOL) were used to collect the data. Results: The present study showed that the most severe symptoms in vasomotor, psychosocial, physical and sexual domains were, hot flushes (29%), experiencing poor memory (48.3%), being dissatisfied with their personal life (44.8%), Low backache (41.9%), and change in your sexual desire (36.8%). The overall scores of menopausal quality of life for each MENQOL domain are indicated that the highest mean score in sexual domain (3.19± 1.99), following by psychosocial (2.94± 1.45) then vasomotor (2.55± 1.53) and finally physical symptoms (2.28± .749). Conclusion: The present study concluded that most severe symptoms in vasomotor, psychosocial, physical and sexual domains were, hot flushes, experiencing poor memory, being dissatisfied with their personal life, low backache, and change in your sexual desire. The mean scores of physical and vasomotor domain were significantly more in postmenopausal (PM) group then menopausal transition MT group. While the mean scores of each domain suggest that menopausal symptoms were associated with decrease in women quality of life. The current study recommended that: Health care providers need to play a more visible and instrumental role in continuously assessing menopausal women's needs as well as implement appropriate health educational programs. Also further research addressing women's health needs is also essential for improving the quality of life of menopausal women in Saudi Arabia Keywords: Menopause -Menopausal symptoms-Quality of life -MENQOL. IntroductionToday, with increasing life expectancy and life span, women spend one-third of their lifetime after menopause [1,2] . Menopause is an adaptation process during which women go through a new biological state. This process is accompanied by many biological and psychosocial changes [3] . Menopause is a normal physiological process which is characterized by the permanent cessation of menses in women as a result of reduced ovarian hormone secretion usually between the ages of 45 and 55 years. During this period women can experience many symptoms including hot flashes, night sweats, sleep and mood disorders, impair...

Background: Labour pain is considered as one of the most intense forms of pain. Psychological challenge such as anxiety can contribute towards women's perception of pain and may also affect their labor and birth experience. There are modern many non-invasive methods to relieve pain during childbirth. Among these methods is aromatherapy which is the most popular complementary therapy during child birth. Therefore this study aimed to assess the effect of aromatherapy massage using lavender oil on the level of pain and anxiety during labor among primigravida women. Setting: the study was conducted in the labour department at El-Shatby Maternity University Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. A purposive sample of 60 pregnant women participated in the study. There were randomly assigned to two groups: The first group (n= 30) received aromatherapy back massage with 2 drops of lavender oil dissolved in 50cc almond oil and the second group (n = 30) received only back massage. Four tools were used to collect the necessary data: An Interviewing Assessment Sheet, Partograph, Visual analogue pain intensity scale (VAS) and Spielberger state-trait anxiety questionnaire. Results of the current study illustrated that the mean pain score before intervention was (7.0) for aromatherapy group and (8.1) for control group. Then after intervention, the mean pain score decreased to 6.4 during active phase for aromatherapy group compared to 8.9 for control group. Also, the mean pain score decreased to 7.7 during transitional phase for aromatherapy group compared to 9.6 for control group. There is a statistical significant difference between the two groups after the intervention. Moreover, the mean anxiety score before intervention was (55.47 and 50.40) respectively among the aromatherapy and control group. However, it decreased during the active and transitional phase to (38.40, 36.63) respectively among aromatherapy group compared to (45.13, 44.07) respectively among control group. The difference was statistically significant. The present study concluded that aromatherapy massage with lavender oil can reduce pain and anxiety during labour. Also, it is an effective way to decrease labor duration. It was recommended that lavender aromatherapy massage can be offered to women in labour for pain relief.

Psychiatric comorbidity and abusive experiences in chronic pelvic pain (CPP) conditions may prolong disease course. This study investigated the psychometrics of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 8 (DASS-8) among women with CPP (N = 214, mean age = 33.3 ± 12.4 years). The DASS-8 expressed excellent fit, invariance across age groups and menopausal status, good know-group validity (differentiating women with psychiatric comorbidity from those without comorbidity: U = 2018.0, p = 0.001), discriminant validity (HTMT ratios < 0.85), excellent reliability (alpha = 0.90), adequate predictive and convergent validity indicated by strong correlation with the DASS-21 (r = 0.94) and high values of item-total correlations (r = 0.884 to 0.893). In two-step cluster analysis, the DASS-8 classified women into low- and high-distress clusters (n = 141 and 73), with significantly higher levels of distress, pain severity and duration, and physical symptoms in cluster 2. The DASS-8 positively correlated with pain severity/duration, subjective symptoms of depression/anxiety, experiences of sexual assault, fatigue, headache severity, and collateral physical symptoms (e.g., dizziness, bloating, fatigue etc.) at the same level expressed by the parent scale and the DASS-12, or even greater. Accordingly, distress may represent a target for early identification of psychiatric comorbidity, CPP severity, experiences of sexual assault, and collateral physical complaints. Therefore, the DASS-8 is a useful brief measure, which may detect mental distress symptoms among women with CPP.

Psychiatric comorbidity and abusive experiences in chronic pelvic pain (CPP) conditions may prolong disease course. This study investigated the psychometrics of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 8 (DASS-8) among women with CPP (N = 214, mean age = 33.3 ± 12.4 years). The DASS-8 expressed excellent fit, invariance across age groups and menopausal status, good discriminant validity (differentiating women with psychiatric comorbidity from those without comorbidity: U = 2018.0, p = 0.001), excellent reliability (alpha = 0.90), adequate predictive and convergent validity indicated by strong correlation with the DASS-21 (r = 0.94) and high values of item-total correlations (r = 0.884 to 0.893). In two-step cluster analysis, it classified women into low and high distress clusters (n = 141 and 73), with significantly higher levels of distress, pain severity and duration, and physical symptoms in cluster 2. The DASS-8 correlated with pain severity/duration, depression/anxiety symptoms, sexual assault, fatigue, headache severity, and physical symptoms at the same level expressed by the parent scale, or even greater. Accordingly, distress may represent a target for early identification of psychiatric comorbidity, CPP severity, sexual assault, fatigue, etc. Therefore, the DASS-8 is a useful brief measure of mental symptoms among women with CPP.

Background: Emergency contraceptive methods offer women safe means of preventing unwanted pregnancies. Providing women with knowledge about EC will improve their understanding and cooperation which in turn can affect their attitude towards EC and hence increase their utilization of these methods. Aim of the study: to assess the effect of an educational guidelines on childbearing women's knowledge, attitude and their intention regarding emergency contraceptive use. Subjects and Method: A Quazi experimental research design was used in this study. This study was implemented at the family planning clinic in the New General Mansoura hospital. A convenient sample of 87 women at the childbearing age were recruited according to inclusion criteria. Two tools of data collection were used: Tool (1): Sociodemographic and reproductive history interview schedule and tool (II): An attitudinal assessment scale. Results: There was a highly statistical significant increase in the total knowledge score immediately after intervention and during the follow up, where P <0.001. Positive total attitude increased from 10 % to 82.8% after the intervention, while negative total attitude decreased from 90 % to 17.2% respectively and the difference was highly statistically significant where p<0.001. Moreover, about two third of women (63.2 %) intended to use EC after the intervention. Conclusion: There was a lack of knowledge about the emergency contraceptive methods among the participants which in turn affected their attitude toward using it. A significant improvement occurred in the total score of knowledge and attitude post intervention and women's intention to use emergency contraceptive methods increased after implementing the educational guidelines. Recommendations: Undertaking information /education and communication programs to raise women's awareness regarding different emergency contraceptive methods.