A Study on the Self Assessment of Post Menopausal problems among the Santals: A Case study in three Districts of West Bengal

  • Krishna Roy
Keywords: Santals, Menopause, Menopausal age, Perimenopausal period, Physical or Somatic problems Vasomotor problems, Menopausal rating scale

Abstract

Menopause, an important marker of Biological ageing of women, brings about significant physiological and psychological changes which may affect their daily life and attitudes towards life. Usually, women are negligient about their health problems in peri menopausal period, though many of these problems may end up with chronic diseases in later life. The perception of all these problems depend not only on body physiology, but also on some social and cultural factors. Considering the importance of this phase of women’s life, the present study has been undertaken to identify the perceptions and experiences in a special community who do not pay any attention to these problems. Hence, the study has been carried out in about 170 middle aged tribal ( Santal) women of Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia district of West Bengal. during their menopausal and perimenopausal period . The tools for data collection was a standard pretested modified questionnaire . Mean menopausal age for these women in the three districts varied with a range from 42.5. years to 44.7 years., which are much lower than the scores of control subjects. They reported about their experiences under the four major categories, such as Physical or Somatic ( including vasomotor changes), Psychological and Sexual problems. Compared to the non tribal urban counterpart of the district, these Santal women reported least about the psychological problems though the somatic problems were quite similar to the control women. They considered all the problems associated with this phase of life as natural part of ageing and did not seek for any kind of medical variations for menopausal transitions.

References

Agarwal AK, Kiron N, Gupta R, Sengar A, Gupta P. (2018) A study of assessment menopausal symptoms and coping strategies among middle age women of North Central India. Int J Community Med Public Health ;5:4470-7.
Agarwal A. Social classification (2008) : The need to update in the present scenario. Indian J Community Med.2008;33:50-1.
Bairy L, Adiga S, Bhat P, Bhat R. (2009) Prevalence of menopausal symptoms and quality of life after menopause in women from South India. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol. ;49:106–9.
Borker SA, Venugopalan PP, Bhat SN. (2013) Study of menopausal symptoms, and perceptions about menopause among women at a rural community in Kerala. J Midlife Health.;4:182–7.
Chedraui P, Blümel JE, Baron G, Belzares E, Bencosme A, Calle A, et al. (2008) Impaired quality of life among middle aged women: A multicentre Latin American study. Maturitas. ;61 (4) :323–9.
Christian DS, Kathad M, Bhavsar B. (2012). A clinico-epidemiological study on health problems of post-menopausal women in rural area of Vadodara District, Gujarat. Natl J Med Res.;2:478–80.
Dasgupta D, Karar P, Ray S and Ganguly N. (2015) Menopausal Tribe and caste population of East India. Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research. Vol 2015, article id 984767.7 pages.
Dasgupta D, Ray S. (2009). Menopausal Problems among Rural and Urban Women from Eastern India. Journal of Social, Behavioural and Health Science. ; 3 (1) :20-33.
Hardy R, Kuh D. (2002) Change in psychological and vasomotor symptoms reporting during the menopause. Social Sci Med. ;55 (11) :1975-88.
Published
2020-08-27
How to Cite
Roy, K. (2020). A Study on the Self Assessment of Post Menopausal problems among the Santals: A Case study in three Districts of West Bengal. International Bilingual Journal of Culture, Anthropology and Linguistics, 1(2-3), 66-74. Retrieved from https://indianadibasi.com/journal/index.php/ibjcal/article/view/11