Perception of Menopause Among Women of Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract

Background: Various factors including menopausal status, educational and social background, culture, physical and emotional health may influence women’s perception about menopause. This study is to document the perception of menopause and factors influencing it among women in Sarawak, Malaysia.Methods: A face-to-face interview using a validated questionnaire was conducted with 324 Sarawakian women aged 40-65 years to determine the mean age of menopause and perception of menopause among these women.Results: The mean age ± standard deviation of the women was 51.37 ± 5.91 years. 90 (27.8%) were premenopausal, 124 (38.5%) perimenopausal and 110 (33.7%) postmenopausal. Majority of these women 228 (70.4%) were local indigenous women of Sarawak. 22.5% agreed problem in menopause is a natural process. 21.9% of the participants agreed menopause should be treated medically. 32.3% of them agreed natural approaches for menopause symptoms are better than hormonal. 75.0% agreed absence of menses after menopause is a relief; 61.2% agreed menopause causes unpleasant symptoms; 51.7% were not sure either women become less sexually attractive after menopause; 51.1% were not sure if they feel less of a woman following menopause. 81.7% of the women were not sure if sexual activity is more enjoyable after menopause and 71.9% of them were uncertain whether changes in life during menopause are more stressful. Among the different menopausal stages; perimenopausal group of women were noted to have more positive perception compared to the pre and postmenopausal women. In this study it was noted, women with higher educational background generally have a better and positive perception on menopause.Conclusions: The perception of menopause in this study were found to be correspond to those in other studies on Asian women. Better educational level and perimenopausal women were found to have more positive perception on menopause compared to the rest of the women studied. Majority of the women noted that menopausal symptoms is unpleasant and absence of menses after menopause is a relief.