Comparison of taste threshold in postmenopausal and non-menopausal women and men

Abstract

Background One of the problems of women after menopause is the occurrence of changes in the taste sense.it could affect on reducing the quality of life .the researcher decided to conduct the present study to express this issue Methods This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 113 people, including 38 menopausal women and 39 non-menopausal women and 36 men who were all qualified and matched in different factors was done. The taste threshold was evaluated by solutions of sucrose, citric acid, sodium chloride, caffeine and monosodium glutamate .The data were recorded after removing confounding items and judged through SPSS version 17 software and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results There was no significant difference between non-menopausal women and men in the distribution of the study subjects according to the taste threshold perception in different types of sweets (p = 0.911), but between menopausal women and non-menopausal women, as well as the group men had a significant difference and postmenopausal women had a higher taste threshold than both groups (p = 0.000) and (p-= 0.002). In the taste of sourness, there was no significant difference between non-menopausal women and men (p = 0.058), also there was no significant difference between menopausal women and men (p = 1), but there was a significant difference between menopausal women and non-menopausal women. and menopausal women had a higher taste threshold than non-menopausal women (p = 0.033). There was no significant difference between menopausal women and men in different types of umami taste (p = 1), but there was a significant difference between menopausal women and non-menopausal women, and menopausal women had a higher taste threshold than non-menopausal women (p = 0.005) Also, there was a significant difference between men and non-menopausal women, and men had a higher taste threshold than non-menopausal women (p = 0.007). There was no significant difference in the distribution of study subjects according to the taste threshold in different concentrations of saltiness and bitterness flavors in all three studied groups (p-= 0.195) (p = 0.091) Conclusions It seems that the taste threshold of sweet, sour and umami flavors was significantly higher in menopausal women compared to non-menopausal women.