A Study to Assess the Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Menopause among Staff Nurses at Selected Hospital of Bagalkot Karnataka

Women should be considered as a most important valuable jewel as a fourfold objective of life, progeny, happiness, all can be attained only through her. Her life is spread into different stages due to some anatomical and physiological changes in body. She responds very differently in different stages of her lives. menopause is a natural phase which tends to be highly variable in timings, pattern, and behaviour due to the reduction in reproductive sex hormones. The term “Menopause” is commonly used to describe the years when women’s ovaries gradually begin to produce fewer eggs and less of female hormones like oestrogen and progesterone. This reduction hormone production causes periods to become less regular until they stop together, and produces physical and psychological symptoms in many women. Menopause is an important period in a woman's life. It is the permanent cessation of menses for 12 months or more. Menopause can develop over a long period of time. The average age for menopause to start is 52 years, but it can begin at any time from age 40 to 58 years. Many symptoms are related to postmenopausal syndrome: hot flashes, irritability, mood swings, insomnia, dry vagina, difficulty concentrating, mental confusion, stress incontinence, urge incontinence, osteoporotic symptoms, depression, anxiety, headache, and vasomotor symptoms it is determined clinically by the onset of irregular menstrual cycles or variable cycle lengths. Women are at an increased risk of depression and anxiety during perimenopause and the menopausal transition. During menopausal transition, the impact of fluctuating oestrogen in the central nervous system (CNS) can have negative psychological effects for some women.