Researching the symptoms of menopause: an exercise in methodology.

This paper deals with the methodological problems involved in the measurement of physical and psychological morbidity among menopausal women. A sample of 477 women were interviewed six times over a 3-yr period. In addition to questions about their menstrual status, the women were asked at each interview to complete a checklist of physical, menopausal, and psychological symptoms. Factor analysis was performed on the symptom experience to determine if symptoms could be grouped together in ways which would demonstrate clinically useful constructs and be stable over time. One-way analysis of variance showed a significant relationship only between the vasomotor symptoms and menopausal status.