الفهرس 
Introduction & Aim of the studyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The menopause is a life transition, in which physiologic, psychological, and social factors potentially interfere with women’s prior health responsiveness, and for which adaptation might be necessary, to maintain life satisfaction. The time of the menopause is dynamic, replete with physiologic, intrapsychic, and social, cultural changes for women and for their families. The woman might request assistance to maintain and enhance her healthy during this transition. Attending to the biologic, psychological, relational, social, and cultural domains, and encouraging women to address the developmental challenges of midlife, might allow them to maintain their life throughout this life transition. Women’s social support by their families, friends, and the community can be helpful in coping with menopausal changes, added that, by seeking support from others menopausal women (Chuni, 2014).
Menopause is part of a woman’s natural aging process when her ovaries produce lower levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone and when she is no longer able to become pregnant. The average age for menopause is 52 years. However, menopause commonly happens anytime between the ages of 42 and 56. A woman can say she has begun her menopause when she has not had a period for a full year (WHO, 2016).
The present study aimed to evaluate the expectations of women regarding menopausal symptoms. The data were collected two different settings. The out-patient’s clinics of Fayoum University hospital and General hospital (obstetrics and gynecology clinic).
The study was conducted on 150 women, who have been selected. The study sample had age ranged from 45- 55 years of different educational and occupational background. The data were collected through:
• A structured interviewing questionnaire sheet for assessing demographic data, women‘s knowledge regarding menopause.
• Menopause Rating Scale, It was used to assess menopausal symptoms such as: physical, psychological and sexual symptoms
• Attitude scale (Likert scale) modified by (Dang& Lee and Tran, 2010) the scale was used to assess woman’s attitude regarding menopausal symptoms.
A pilot study was done on 15 women who were excluded from the sample and the questionnaire was modified accordingly. The data were collected over a period of 6 months in the period between 10th of October 2015 and 10th of April 2016, by using questionnaire through interviewing women individually in a time ranged between 20 to 30 minutes.
The result of this study revealed:-
-Women complained from physical menopausal symptoms was (37%, 36%.22%, 5%) none, mild, moderate, severe respectively.
-Women complained from psychological menopausal symptoms was (47%, 32%.15%, 6%) none, mild, moderate, severe respectively.
-Women complained from sexual menopausal symptoms was (56%, 30%.9%, 5%) none, mild, moderate, severe respectively.
-Women had satisfactory knowledge about the menopause (41.7%), while (58.3%). Of them had unsatisfactory of knowledge.
-Women had positive attitude toward the menopause (71%), while (29%) of them had negative attitude toward it.
-No significant differences between the proportion of cases with the moderate total menopause and sociodemographic characteristics.
- Statistically significant differences between Women with positive attitude and the moderate total menopause.
- Women with positive attitude tends to have more satisfactory knowledge 48.9% compared to 38.6% for negative attitude but the results is statistically non-significant.
- There were a statistically no significant differences between; the proportion of cases with satisfactory level of knowledge and age, Residence, marriage and occupation. While the result is almost statistically significant between; the proportion of cases with satisfactory level of knowledge and level of education, income and family member.
The results of this study concluded that, the majority of women had none to mild menopausal symptoms while Near to one third of women suffered from moderate symptoms. Most of the study women had unsatisfactory knowledge about menopause due to the majority of women were illiterate. The majority of the sample had positive attitudes regarding menopausal symptom.
As a result of this conclusion the following recommendations were suggested:
Upraise health awareness of females at different ages and of various educational backgrounds about the impact of healthy life styles in the prevention of serious health problems associated with the menopause. Develop in service educational department responsible for arrangement and follow up training courses to update their knowledge and skills about the advancing technology in maintaining women’s health.
Establishment of menopause clinics in primary health care centers and maternity - childhood health centers staffed with especially trained nurses and general practitioners for counseling women about menopausal period and its problems.
Knowledge about climacteric and menopausal problems should be available in the form of hand outs, booklets, audio tapes, video films at all levels of health care centers, at women clubs, at women’s recreation centers and at women’s work places. Hormone replacement therapy should be available at a reasonable cost, which can be afforded by menopausal women.