Is the Menopause Rating Scale accurate for diagnosing sexual dysfunction among climacteric women?

BACKGROUND: Although several tools have been designed to assess quality of life (QoL) among middle-aged women their capacity to specifically assess sexual dysfunction (SD) remains uncertain. Moreover, if SD impairs QoL within this population, then sexual assessment becomes a key issue. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the accuracy of the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) in diagnosing SD among climacteric women. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study 370 women aged 40-59 years filled out the MRS and the Female Sexual Functioning Index (FSFI) simultaneously. SD among surveyed women was defined as those obtaining a total FSFI score of or=1 in the MRS item 8 as a cut-off value for discriminating women with SD (78% sensitivity and 62% specificity with an area below the curve of 0.70 Swett). CONCLUSIONS: The MRS was moderately accurate for diagnosing SD among climacteric women. More research is warranted in this regard.

Evaluación de la calidad de vida en mujeres de 40 a 59 años mediante la escala MRS (Menopause Rating Scale) / Assessment of quality of life using the Menopause Rating Scale in women aged 40 to 59 years

Background: Climacteric symptoms have a direct relationship with biological and sociocultural factors and significantly impair the quality of life of women. Aim: To assess quality of life and factors affecting it in women aged 40 to 59 years. Material and methods: The Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) was applied to 370 healthy women aged 49 ± 6 years, that accompanied patients to public hospitals in Santiago. Results: Forty four percent of women were postmenopausal and 6 percent used hormone replacement therapy. Half of the group had less than 12 years of formal education and 67 percent had a couple. The mean number of children was 2.8 ± 1.5. Total MRS score was 16.2 ± 8.5. The higher score was given by the psychological domain (7.7 + 4.4), followed by the somatic domain (5.8 ± 3.5). The urogenital domain had the lowest score (2.7 ± 2.9). Eighty percent of women had moderate to severe climacteric symptoms. A logistic regression analysis showed that the postmenopausal condition was the factor that caused the greatest derangement in quality of life, followed by her parity. Formal education had the lowest impact. Conclusions: In this sample of women, menopause significantly deteriorated quality of life and sociocultural factors such as the parity also had an impact.

[Assessment of quality of life using the Menopause Rating Scale in women aged 40 to 59 years]. / Evaluación de la calidad de vida en mujeres de 40 a 59 años mediante la escala MRS (Menopause Rating Scale).

BACKGROUND: Climacteric symptoms have a direct relationship with biological and sociocultural factors and significantly impair the quality of life of women. AIM: To assess quality of life and factors affecting it in women aged 40 to 59 years. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) was applied to 370 healthy women aged 49 +/- 6 years, that accompanied patients to public hospitals in Santiago. RESULTS: Forty four percent of women were postmenopausal and 6% used hormone replacement therapy. Half of the group had less than 12 years of formal education and 67% had a couple. The mean number of children was 2.8 +/- 1.5. Total MRS score was 16.2 +/- 8.5. The higher score was given by the psychological domain (7.7 + 4.4), followed by the somatic domain (5.8 +/- 3.5). The urogenital domain had the lowest score (2.7 +/- 2.9). Eighty percent of women had moderate to severe climacteric symptoms. A logistic regression analysis showed that the postmenopausal condition was the factor that caused the greatest derangement in quality of life, followed by her parity. Formal education had the lowest impact. CONCLUSIONS: In this sample of women, menopause significantly deteriorated quality of life and sociocultural factors such as the parity also had an impact.