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