Homoeopathy and menopausal syndrome: Health seeking behaviour of women aged 40-60 years in Chennai

Abstract

Background: Menopause is the physiological process as it signifies the permanent cessation of menstruation and end to the reproductive potential. Menopause is the part of women’s life which plays a major role in second half of the women’s life where women face the transition phase from reproductive to non-reproductive phase of their lives. An estimated 80% of female’s experience physical or psychosocial symptoms while approaching menopause, leading to change in their quality of life (QOL). The previous outcome study and service evaluation of the homoeopathy service in 1999–2000, which found that 88% of patients reported clinically significant improvement in their primary symptoms of menopause. Objective: To assess the health seeking behaviour of women aged 40- 60 years for menopausal syndrome in homoeopathy.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among women aged between 40—60years during the period of March 2019 to May 2019(period of 3months) to know the health seeking behaviour of women approaching Homeopathy for menopausal symptoms. The Information was asked through direct personal interview.Results: The most common symptoms faced by women were mood swings (78.8%) and disturbance in the sleep (76.4%). Most of the respondents showed good prognosis w after homeopathic remedy (92.3%). The satisfaction gained through prescription of homoeopathic medicine was 96.2%.Conclusion: During this menopausal transition, women needs best counselling also the medicine to overcome her mental disturbances. RCT’s can be performed to prove this theory in future. In the conclusion, mood swings results suggest that homoeopathic remedies were effective in disturbed sleep and mood swings. Thus, homoeopathic medicine acts at mental plane. Further, studies should be done to prove with hypothesis.