Obstetric and psychiatric history as predictors for psychosomatic symptoms among Korean perimenopausal women.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Menopause presents various physical and psychological disturbances for women and comes at a high financial cost. Therefore, this study aimed to identify factors influencing menopause symptoms. STUDY DESIGN: Data of Korean perimenopausal women aged 40-60 (n = 1060; mean age, 46.03 ± 4.08) were collected by a research company. Participants were classified into a "functional" group (n = 716) or a "dysfunctional" group (n = 344) according to the severity of their perimenopausal psychosomatic symptoms. To investigate the association of obstetric and psychiatric history with membership of the "dysfunctional" group, a hierarchical logistic regression analysis was conducted. RESULTS: The outcomes of all three hierarchical logistic regression models presented significant overall model fit. Among the independent variables, family history of menopausal symptoms, menarcheal age, number of pregnancies, history of postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and other psychiatric disorders were positively associated with being in the "dysfunctional" group, whereas age and number of deliveries were negatively associated with being in the "dysfunctional" group. CONCLUSION: A short reproductive period and short exposure to estrogen due to late menarche and early menopausal transition may be related to severe perimenopausal symptoms. The relationship between the history of postpartum mental illness and severe perimenopausal symptoms may be associated with heightened sensitivity to hormonal triggers when a woman is exposed to fluctuating ovarian sex steroid levels. The relationship between parity or gravidity and the severity of menopausal symptoms in Korean women differed from that in studies conducted in other countries, possibly due to the low birth rate in Korea.