JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

Abstract

Background: Aging in women and their quality of life is an important issue in India. Menopause is one of the major turning point in a women’s life. Several studies have been conducted on the factors influencing early natural menopause. However, there is a minimal information on the effect of chuttas smoking and poor nutrition. Thus, a concrete study has been conducted in the department of Gynaecology and Orthopaedics of King George Hospital and Gosha Mahal Women’s Hospital in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Materials and Methods: A prospective study among 400 women aged 36-58 years, who had reached their menopause was conducted. A case sheet for tracing out the clinical symptoms, signs and physical findings was designed. Examination findings of these women were written into the designed case sheets. The study was supported by few Gynaecologists and Clinicians. A distributed methodology of approach has been adopted into the study where women subjects from different regions of North Coastal Andhra Pradesh were taken. Factors like religion, occupation were also taken into account but the emphasis was laid on the Nutritional status and Chuttas smoking. Results: Median age of menopause was observed to be 48 years. 44% of women attained menopause around 46-49 years. The minimum age was observed to be 38 years. A P value of <0.01 was considered as statistically significant. Around 50% of women were moderately nourished and attained menopause later than ill-nourished women (20%) who had earlier menopause and it was statistically significant as P < 0.01.15% of the women patients are chuttas smokers and 75 % of these women attained early menopause. It is striking to observe that maximum age of menopause among the smokers is 42 years when compared with non-smokers whose maximum age of menopause is 52 years. Conclusions: It is clearly evident that Poor nutritional status and Chuttas smoking play a significant role in attainment of early natural meno- pause. The association between early onset of menopause in relation to poor nutrition and chuttas smoking indicates the need for establishment of counselling centres and health education by the Government.

Keywords: Menopause, Tobacco Chuttas, Nutrition, Smoking