[Reliability of the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS): Investigation in the German population].

The Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) is a well accepted instrument to measure the severity of menopausal symptoms. As yet, however, investigations had not specifically been directed towards short-term test-retest reliability of the scale. The MRS was twice applied in a random sample of 45-65 years aged women of the German Cohort Study of Women's Health with a distance between the measurements of 14 days. The response rate in the sample was 70 %. The correlation coefficient (Pearson) of the sum-score of the two measurements was r = 0.82. The high repeatability of the test results confirms our clinical experience and emphasizes excellent practical applicability. The MRS can be recommended for the clinical practice as a reliable scale both for the measurement and long-term surveillance of menopausal complaint dynamics.