title: Women's perception and experience of menopause: a community-based study in Alexandria, Egypt.
abstract: To determine symptoms, perceptions and practices after natural menopause by women aged 50-59 years, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 450 women from Alexandria. The most frequently recalled symptoms were tiredness (96.0%), headache (95.1%), hot flushes (90.7%), skin wrinkles (90.7%) and decreased sexual desire (89.1%). About 91% of women had never heard about hormone replacement therapy; 42.7% would expose their body to the sun; 12.4% were moderately active the year before menopause. Multiple regression analysis indicated that women's knowledge about menopause was related to marital status, education and employment status; practices were related to pattern of menopause, age of menopause and income.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Loutfy
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Abdel Aziz
authors.forename: N I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Dabbous
authors.forename: M H A
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Hassan
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D004534:Egypt; D004651:Employment; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D017533:Marital Status; D008593:Menopause / Q000208:ethnology / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014555:Urination Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D014930:Women / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*