title: Knowledge of reproductive physiology and hormone therapy in 40-60 year old women: a population-based study in Yazd, Iran.
abstract: Background : Evidences shows that menopause affects women's health, but women's knowledge of proper care and maintenance is insufficient.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine knowledge of hormone therapy (HT), reproductive physiology, and menopause in a population of 40-60 year old women.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted through a cluster sampling among 330 women in Yazd, Islamic Republic of Iran, in 2010. Data was collected using a questionnaire containing questions about reproductive physiology related to menopause and HT by interviewing. Inferential and descriptive statistics via SPSS.15 software were used for data analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 2.1% of women were current takers of HT, 13.4% had taken it in the past but had stopped and 84.5% had never taken hormone replacement therapy. Iranian women had low knowledge of HT, reproductive physiology, and menopause. Most of the women (85.5%) knew that hot flashes are common around menopause and only 77.2% knew decreasing estrogen production causes the menopause. They knew little about the effects of progestagens and the effects of HT on fertility. Logistic regression determined that age, educational level and BMI were the most important factors predicting use of HT after adjusting for other variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Iranian women have a low HT usage rate and the majority of them are lacking of the knowledge about HT and menopause. Women need improved knowledge of the risks and benefits of HT as well as education about the reproductive system around menopause.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Health School, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fallahzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hossienzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yazdani
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Atefeh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Javadi
keywords: Hormone therapy; Iranian; Knowledge; Menopause; Reproduction physiology; Women