The menopausal syndrome: a factor analytic replication

Abstract

The authors contend that conclusions regarding the existence of a menopausal syndrome based on clinical trials with oestrogen therapy cannot be generalized to the general population. As an alternative strategy for investigating the nature of the menopausal syndrome the authors performed a factor analysis of the results from a symptom checklist. The list was included in a postal questionnaire sent to a representative sample of 2349 women aged between 45 and 55 years residing in the city of Oslo, Norway. A varimax, rotated five-factor solution yielded the best result both theoretically and empirically. The five factors were labelled as vague somatic complaints, nervousness, mood lability, vasomotor complaints and urogenital complaints. Five variables were constructed on the basis of the factor scores. One-way analysis of variance showed that vasomotor complaints associated with excessive sweating, hot flushes and vaginal dryness, constituted the only variable significantly related to menopausal development. The latter was measured according to time elapsed since the last menstrual period.