Understanding the menopausal experiences of professional women.

OBJECTIVE: To assess how menopause affects the lives of busy female executives by evaluating how they view their overall health and how specific symptoms affect their lives and to gain insight into their knowledge and general perspective of hormone therapy as treatment for menopause-related symptoms.

DESIGN: In this survey, 961 members of the National Association of Female Executives aged 35 years and older completed an Internet survey about the impact of menopausal symptoms and general knowledge and understanding of hormone therapy. Subgroups within this survey included women who were premenopausal (n = 118), perimenopausal (n = 239), menopausal (n = 297), and postmenopausal (n = 307).

RESULTS: A majority of women surveyed (88%) had personal experience with menopause, 95% reported physical symptoms, and 79% reported emotional symptoms. Among women reporting symptoms, 40% found symptoms to be problematic in at least one area of their lives. Of the 41% of respondents who had used hormone therapy to treat their menopausal symptoms, 57% reported continued use at the time of the survey. Among those who discontinued hormone therapy, 39% cited the Women's Health Initiative results as one of the reasons. The survey also found substantial gaps in the knowledge and understanding of hormone therapy by the survey responders.

CONCLUSIONS: The majority of menopausal women surveyed experience physical and/or emotional symptoms. For many women, symptoms related to menopause significantly affect their daily personal, professional, and social lives. Educating patients about scientific findings, current treatment options, and the associated risks and benefits is critical to providing effective, individualized care to improve quality of life.