Study of menopausal age in women living in Mazandaran province in 2002

Background and Menopause is one of the four critical stages in women which make them vulnerable to effective, strong, persistant and permanent hormonal changes. Therefore, assessment of menopauseal age and its enfluencing factors are very important. This is a descriptive study on rural and urban women living in mazandaran province whose menopausal period started 12 months before the study. Sampling was done through clastering method by calling in the houses of 3036 menopasual women.Data on demographic,anthropometric,obstetric menstruation, menopause, reproduction, breast feeding and stress were recorded in questionnaire. Weight, blood pressure and hight were measured and analyzed using statistical analysis of varionce, X2, regresion and t test. Mean menopausal age of the women under study was 47.93 ± 4.37 and 3.7% of the women prior to 40 years of age were menopause. Statistical analysis did not show any statistical relationship between menopausal age and education, economic condition, BMÏ, being left handed, using contraceptive, history of menopause and stresses between the women with early and late menopause. Howere, there was significant relationship between age of menopause with profession, number of pregnancies, age of the latest pregnancies, menopausal age of mother and sister(P<0.05).Âlso this study showed that there is a significant relationship between the age of menopause in defferent cities of mazandaran. Çonclusion: Çonsidering the low mean menopausal in this study and also in other studies done in Ïran compared to developed countries and the complications due to low age of menopause, it is recommended that special clinics to be established for menopause women and more information and services be available to them.