OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence of risk factors for Osteoporosis and Cardiovascular disease and the frequency of appearance of menopausal symptoms; and to study how these are linked to menstrual disorders in premenopausal women. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: General Medical clinics of an urban PC team in Leganés, Madrid. PATIENTS: 181 women who attended the clinics without appointment for whatever reason over a month. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A directed questionnaire on risk factors and 19 symptoms of the menopause was completed. Among the risk factors for Osteoporosis, 52.2% of women consumed less than 500 mg of calcium per day, 8.3% had never given birth and 6.7% presented early menopause. As risk factors for Cardiovascular disease, the high prevalence of arterial Hypertension (32.6%) and Dislipaemia (24.9%) were notable. Only flushes, pain in the joints, migraine, fatigue, nervousness and loss of memory were present in more than 50% of the women. The thirteen remaining symptoms did not reach this proportion. We found no association between classic symptoms of menopause and premenopausal menstrual disorders. CONCLUSIONS: The intake of calcium by women in our health area must be increased. We thought there were reasonable doubts for some classic symptoms of the menopause being accepted as indicators for hormone replacement therapy.
OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence of risk factors for Osteoporosis and Cardiovascular disease and the frequency of appearance of menopausal symptoms; and to study how these are linked to menstrual disorders in premenopausal women. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: General Medical clinics of an urban PC team in Leganés, Madrid. PATIENTS: 181 women who attended the clinics without appointment for whatever reason over a month. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A directed questionnaire on risk factors and 19 symptoms of the menopause was completed. Among the risk factors for Osteoporosis, 52.2% of women consumed less than 500 mg of calcium per day, 8.3% had never given birth and 6.7% presented early menopause. As risk factors for Cardiovascular disease, the high prevalence of arterial Hypertension (32.6%) and Dislipaemia (24.9%) were notable. Only flushes, pain in the joints, migraine, fatigue, nervousness and loss of memory were present in more than 50% of the women. The thirteen remaining symptoms did not reach this proportion. We found no association between classic symptoms of menopause and premenopausal menstrual disorders. CONCLUSIONS: The intake of calcium by women in our health area must be increased. We thought there were reasonable doubts for some classic symptoms of the menopause being accepted as indicators for hormone replacement therapy.