Understanding women's experience of memory over the menopausal transition: subjective and objective memory in pre-, peri-, and postmenopausal women

This study aimed to examine women's subjective perception of memory and their objective memory performance across the menopausal transition. Methods: One hundred thirty women, aged 40 to 60 years were recruited from outpatient Menopause and Gynaecological clinics at the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne. Women were divided into menopausal stage groups according to the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop criteria based on menstrual patterns. All women completed self-report measures of depressive, anxiety, vasomotor, and sleep symptoms; attitude to menopause; and various aspects of memory, including memory contentment, frequency of forgetting, sense of control over memory, and use of memory strategies. Women also completed a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation assessing memory and executive function. Results: Comprehensive neuropsychological assessment showed no difference between premenopausal (n = 36), perimenopausal (n = 54), and postmenopausal (n = 40) groups in performance on memory and executive tasks. Perimenopausal women, however, reported significantly more frequent forgetting (η2 = 0.09, P 
Source: Menopause - Category: OBGYN Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research