Median age at menopause in a rural population of western Kenya.

This was a cross sectional descriptive study to discuss the median age of menopause in a rural area of Western Kenya. The broad objective of the study was to describe the demographic and biophysical characteristics of the study population and determine the age of menopause. A review of the current and medieval records shows average age of menopause has remained relatively constant at 50 years in contrast to the receeding age of menarche. A total of 1078 women aged between 40-60 years were interviewed. The majority (98.8%) were from one ethnic group, the Luhya. Of the 1078 women, 880 (81.4%) were married and 198 (18.6%) were single. The average number of children per woman was 7.74. Most of the women (75.1%) had attained primary school education. Their husbands were unskilled workers in 30.1% of the cases. The mean weight and height of the women was 60.74 kg and 161.1 cm respectively. Using methods of probit analysis, the median and modal age of menopause was found to be 48.28 years in this group of western Kenya women. If generalised for the whole country, these results suggest that an average Kenyan woman lives for over ten years beyond menopause. It is recommended that more attention should be given to the special health problems of postmenopausal population.