title: The menopausal age and associated factors in Gorgan, Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Considering the physical, emotional and psychological complications of early or delayed menopause on women's life, it is necessary to determine associated factors of menopause age. This study designed to determine menopausal age and associated factors in women of Gorgan, i.e. the capital of Golestan province in the north-east of Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study, 804 menopausal women in Gorgan were selected via two-stage sampling method in 2009. The study included only women who had undergone natural menopause and had their last menstrual bleeding at least one year before. Data were gathered through structured questionnaire that included individual characteristics, socioeconomic characteristics, menstrual and fertility characteristics and climacteric complaints. Socioeconomic status was defined using principal component analysis. Data were analyzed with T-student's and ANOVA tests using SPSS version 16 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) for Windows.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean menopause age was 47.6±4.45 years with the median age of 48 years. The mean menopause age in women with first pregnancy before 30 years (47.58±4.47years), without pregnancy (46.26±4.90years) and without delivery (46.30±4.47 years) was significantly lower than others (p<0.01). The mean menopause age was lower in single women (46.6±2.80 years), with low income level (47.7±4.39 years) and smokers (47.6±4.45 years) compared to others; but these differences were not statistically significant (p>0.05). Socioeconomic status was not associated significantly with menopause age (p>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study illustrated that menstrual and fertility factors have influence on menopausal age while socioeconomic factors were not effective.
authors.affiliation: Academic Instructor, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran. abdollahy64@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Ali Akbar
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Abdollahi
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qorbani
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Asayesh
authors.forename: Aziz
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rezapour
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noroozi
authors.forename: Morteza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mansourian
authors.forename: Mohammad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Soleimani
authors.forename: Hossain
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ansari
keywords: Climacteric complains; Fertility factors; Iran; Menopausal age; Menstrual factors; socioeconomic status