Climacteric symptoms and knowledge about hormone replacement therapy among Hong Kong Chinese women aged 40-60 years.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), the prevalence of climacteric symptoms, and the knowledge about HRT.


METHODS
A prospective study was conducted by telephone interview among a randomly selected population-based sample of 978 Hong Kong Chinese women aged 40-60 years.


RESULTS
Of 414 women with a history of either natural or surgical menopause, 22 (5.3%) and 17 (4.1%), respectively, were either past or current users of HRT. The climacteric symptom scores of premenopausal women were significantly lower than those of perimenopausal women, but were comparable with those of postmenopausal women. The commonest climacteric symptom was 'muscle and joint pains' which was reported in 553 (56.6%) women, while only 228 (23.3%) and 151 (15.4%) women reported hot flushes and night sweating, respectively. Moreover, only 230 (23.5%) women realized that HRT could relieve menopausal symptoms and only 33 (3.4%) women were aware that HRT was protective against osteoporosis. In general, women with more climacteric symptoms, who had ever used HRT, and those with higher education level and higher family income, had better knowledge about HRT.


CONCLUSIONS
Postmenopausal Hong Kong Chinese women have a low HRT usage rate and the majority of them are lacking of the knowledge about HRT.
Lam
Po Mui
PM
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, The Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH), Shatin, SAR, Hong Kong, China. lampomui@cuhk.edu.hk
Leung
Tse Ngong
TN
Haines
Christopher
C
Chung
Tony Kwok Hung
TK
D000328:Adult; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D019584:Hot Flashes / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies