Abstract
Sociocultural stress factors in perimenopausal women with undefined symptoms were analyzed. A total of 475 perimenopausal women were enrolled in the study. Several sociocultural stress factors were found to affect 70.1% of them. Fifty-five percent of the patients recognized problems related to health, work and human associations in the office as causes of stress. In addition, 26.9% of them recognized problems with their spouse as causes of stress. Problems related to parents (10.9%) and children (13.9%) were also relatively common stress factors for perimenopausal women. Furthermore, overlap of several stress factors were observed in 23.1% of the subjects. On the other hand, some factors were found to be higher in incidence (1997-2000) than previously (1994-1996). Factors for which incidence was significantly increased were as follows : concern worry about work responsibilities and human association in their office (2.33-fold), relationship with their spouse (1.77-fold), worry about life manners and the outlook of their children (2.21-fold), and concern over sickness and care of their parents (1.89-fold). This study suggests that many sociocultural stress factors are related to the onset of ill-defined symptoms in perimenopausal women, and that coping with stress should be included in psychological treatment in climacteric medicine.
