Age at the menopause and onset of the climacteric in women of Martin District, Czechoslovkia. Statistical survey and some biological and social correlations

Abstract

In this study, 6877 women were analysed whose ages ranged between 38 and 58 (born between 1909 and 1929) and who had had no artificial menopause. This is 88.04% of the total female population in this actual period of life, living in Martin District in 1967. The mean age at the menopause was found, by status quo method, to be 51.21 years (standard deviation 4.4), and by the method of weighted arithmetical means, 48.81 years, (standard deviation 3.9). The mean age at the onset of the climacteric, calculated by the same methods, was 47.55 years, or 46.74 years, respectively. The mean age at menarche was 14.6 years. The average birth-rate was 2.8. The mean period of fertility for the series as a whole was 36.6 years. Women with menstrual disturbances had their menopause about 1 year earlier. We have noted a similar tendency in nulliparas and primiparas. We could find no great difference in the age at menopause between those who had had an early or a late menarche. Menstrual disturbances also influenced the onset of the climacteric. It was at least one year earlier than with regular menstruation. Age at menarche and parity had no effect on the age at the onset of climacteric. Women working in agriculture and housewives had their menopause a little later than mean age of the series, whereas manual workers and those in other occupational categories had their menopause and onset of the climacteric about 1 year earlier. Furthermore, single women had their menopause about one year earlier than the married ones. Widows had their menopause twice so often as the married women and they got it very soon after the husbands's death.