Menopause: Problems and coping strategies of working and non-working women

Abstract

To know the prevalence and coping strategies for menopausal problems among working and nonworking women. The study included equal number of participant from rural and urban women i.e. 120 participants from two districts so the total participants were 480 women. The in-depth interview was conducted to elicit the information regarding general information, menopausal symptoms and coping strategies for menopausal problems. The results of the study indicated that most common menopausal problems were joint and muscular discomfort (68.33%), sleep problems (51.66%), hot flushes (37.50%), sweating (6.67%) and heart discomfort (9.31%). With regard to level of menopausal problems, half per cent (50%) of the women experienced moderate level of somatic problems followed by severe (28.33%) and mild (20.83%), (44.17%) of the respondents had moderate level of psychological problems while, 40 per cent had severe psychological problems followed by 15.83 per cent had moderate level of psychological problems. With regard to urogenital problems 45.83 per cent had mild problems followed by moderate (31.67%) and severe (22.50%) level of urogenital problems. There was significant association and relationship between locality and occupational status. Around 55 to 90 per cent of the women were not following coping methods for menopausal problems. For sexual desire, urogenital problems and vaginal dryness around 95 per cent of the respondents not followed or inculcated coping methods to overcome these problems. The study concluded that there is need for different coping methods for both working women to remit the menopausal problems.