Menstrual Health Landscape of Middle-Aged Women (40-60 years) in Semi-Urban area of Raigad, India: An Exploratory Study

Abstract Background: Menopause continues to be an underexplored domain in the context of biological ageing. Considering the progressively increasing burden of middle-aged women, an exploratory study was done with the objective to know their prevailing signs and symptoms related to menstrual health and quality of life. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted among 204 women aged 40–60 years selected through non-probability convenient sampling. Menstrual health was assessed using self-reported symptom assessments and the menopause-specific quality of life questionnaire MENQOL. Results: Eighty-three percent (169) of respondents exhibited either irregular menstrual cycles or had ceased menstruation altogether, with only 35 (17.2%) respondents having regular menstrual cycles. The mean age of menopause was 44.21 ± 3.79 years. One or more symptoms within the physical domain were present in all the respondents (100%), psychosocial symptoms in 98.4% (200), sexual symptoms in 64.2% (131) and vasomotor symptoms in 61.7% (126) of the respondents. Forty four percent (90) of the study cohort experienced symptoms across all four domains. Associations of perimenopause stage with the presence of vasomotor and sexual symptoms were observed to be statistically significant. Conclusions: This study highlights an early onset of perimenopause and menopause, accompanied by varied symptoms impacting quality of life.