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 Researchers reviewed results from an online survey asking 8,200
older men and women in North America and Europe how menopause
impacted their sex lives and relationships and found similar
complaints in different countries. But the magnitude of suffering
for typical symptoms such as vaginal dryness, hot flashes and weight
gain varied by nationality.
“In societies where age is more revered and the older woman is the
wiser and better woman, menopausal symptoms are significantly less
bothersome,” lead study author Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a professor in
obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive health at Yale Medical
School, said by email. “Where older is not better, many women equate
menopause with old age, and symptoms can be much more devastating.”
Women go through menopause when they stop menstruating, which
typically happens between ages 45 and 55. As the ovaries curb
production of the hormones estrogen and progesterone in the years
leading up to menopause, women can experience symptoms ranging from
irregular periods and vaginal dryness to mood swings and insomnia.
Minkin and colleagues focused their analysis on postmenopausal women
aged 55 to 65, and men in relationships with women this age, in the
United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Finland,
Norway, France and Italy.
The survey was primarily designed to assess how vaginal atrophy,
which may include dryness, irritation, itching or pain, impacted
participants’ relationships. But the web-based questionnaire also
explored other menopause symptoms and examined whether the severity
of these difficulties matched what people had expected to
experience.
Perhaps not surprisingly, given the main goal of the study, vaginal
dryness was the top complaint both men and women reported,
regardless of nationality, the researchers report in the journal
Menopause.
Across all of the countries in the study, this symptom was most
commonly reported in Canada, where 85 percent of women and 81
percent of men cited this as a concern. Italians were least likely
to list this complaint, which was reported by 65 percent of women
and 61 percent of men.
Many symptoms were more prevalent among women from the U.S., the
U.K. and Canada, and less common among women in Sweden and Italy,
the study found. U.S., U.K. and Canadian men, however, were more
likely to report symptoms in their female partners.
Overall, men ranked mood swings and vaginal pain during intercourse
among their top five complaints related to menopause, while for
women, disrupted sleep and weight gain were more important.
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Among the women, residents of Denmark, Sweden and Norway were most
likely to report that going through menopause turned out better than
they expected, while participants living in the U.S., U.K., France
and Canada were more prone to find menopause much worse than they
had anticipated.
The findings might not reflect the experiences of a broader
population because the survey was designed to recruit only women
with vaginal pain and men who experienced this with their partners,
Melissa Melby, an anthropologist at the University of Delaware, said
by email.
Even so, the cultural differences highlighted by the survey
responses underscore how regional differences in diet, physical
activity, attitudes toward aging and expectations about menopause
might influence how people experience symptoms, said Melby, who
wasn’t involved in the study.
“If menopause symptoms were due solely to hormonal changes then the
menopausal experience would be more homogenous,” Dr. Sandra
Thompson, professor in rural health at the University of Western
Australia, said by email.
The symptoms directly associated with a decrease in estrogen are hot
flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness and insomnia, said Thompson,
who wasn’t involved in the study. So it’s not surprising that these
were the top complaints in the study, regardless of nationality.
Culture comes into play, however, when women assess the severity of
symptoms, she said.
“The social context in which a woman lives is important to her
understanding and experience of the menopausal transition,” Thompson
said. “When looking at different countries, variations in symptom
reporting can be attributed to language differences, culturally
shaped expectations about menopause, culturally influenced gender
roles and socioeconomic status.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1M8qDsJ Menopause, online May 4, 2015.
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