Women with and without menopause over age of 40 in Turkey: consequences and treatment options

Aim: To investigate the characteristics of menopausal population who gets free first step health-care services from government facilities in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. Methods: One thousand and forty-nine pre- ( N=403) and post ( N=646)-menopausal females were interviewed with a questionnaire in five different facilities during 2 weeks. Results: The group, who never used oral contraceptive as a family planning method, never smoked and had a low rate of illiteracy (72.5, 72.5, 77.7, and 12.1%, respectively. Mean age of the menopause was 45.8 ± 5.5 years. Mean years since menopause was 13.2 ± 9.6 years and mode of the menopause was 10 years. Group of postmenopausal women knew the meaning of menopause as “ceasing of menses” in a significantly higher rate compared to pre-menopausal group (6.9% versus 2.2%, respectively). While rate of the women regularly visiting free health-care facilities and rate of receiving some form of HRT is observed to be relatively low (33 and 29.4%, respectively), no significant differences were observed in symptoms rating between pre- and post-menopausal group restlessness, uneasy feeling, insomnia, flushing, sweating, tachycardia, short memory, bone and muscle pain, and nocturia and therefore such symptoms seem to be unrelated to their menopausal status. Conclusions: Women are entering to menopause earlier and using the free medical facilities in this region of Turkey less, compared to European population and seeking less help for menopause during this period. They are mostly married, with lower preferences for oral medications, non-smokers, relatively literate group of people; however, with low awareness of their current situation regarding the phenomenon of “ceasing of menses” and its consequences.