The Onset of Menopause: Old-age knocking at the Door

While chronologically old age is considered to begin from the sixties, biological maturity and ageing in the human body initiates much earlier. In women, menopause marks the beginning of such a process with sudden imbalance in the hormonal and physiological functions of the body.

Present paper aims at understanding age at menopause, its symptomatology and post-menopausal health problems among women of Assam, India.

Data were sourced from field survey of 447 menopausal women aged 40-55 years selected from urban, rural and tribal settings in Assam. Selection of respondents was purposive in nature and performed using quota sampling procedure.

Mean age at onset of menopause among India women is 47±2 years, those under study experiencing it as early as 44 years, much below the global and national average.

The most prominent symptoms were not the typical vasomotor symptoms of menopause (hot flushes/night sweats) rather those indicating their poor health, and are often associated with old-age. Ideally, the classic symptoms of menopause subside within a few years after menopause due to body’s internal mechanism to adjust to the natural changes. However, it was seen that among the women under study many of these problems intensified as they progressed to old age affecting their quality of life.