The relationship between the duration of menopause and lower urinary tract symptoms in women aged 40 to 59

Objective-To evaluate lower urinary tract symptoms in pre- and perimenopausal women. Method-Four hundred seventy-one women between 40 and 59 years of age with perimenopausal complaints attending our menopause clinic were evaluated for lower urinary tract symptoms by using the International Prostate Symptom Score questionnaire. The women were categorized by subgroups as being in premenopause, early menopause (1-<5 years' duration) and late menopause ( greater than or equal to5 years' duration), and by decade. Statistical evaluations were done by impaired t test, one-way ANOVA, and simple and multiple regression analyses. Results-The premenopausal women in their forties had more severe lower urinary tract symptoms when compared with early and late menopausal women. In comparisons the nocturia score tended to rise with age. Conclusion-Lower urinary tract symptoms appear to be affected by both age and the duration of menopause in women in their forties and fifties, and this observation might be taken into consideration while evaluating this age group for lower urinary tract symptoms

Bladder weight in perimenopausal women aged 50-55

This study aimed to determine whether the preliminary factor for the manifestation of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in perimenopausal women is age-dependent morphological changes in the bladder or hypoestrogenism. The bladder weights and the effects of bladder weight changes on LUTS were evaluated in three groups of women within and age range of 50-55 years: premenopausal ( n =29), short-term menopausal (less than 5 years) ( n =38) and long-term menopausal (5 years and more) ( n =31). The comparison of LUTS among the groups was made using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) questionnaire; the ultrasonographically determined bladder weights of all the women and the duration of menopause were evaluated for the presence of any correlation for their ages. The relation between the bladder weights and the symptom scores was also tested. The bladder weight of women with longer duration of menopause was found to be significantly decreased compared with that of women with shorter-duration menopause within the same age group ( p 0.05 for each). The symptom scores had no correlation with the bladder weights or the ages of patients ( p >0.05 for each). In this age group of women the duration of hypoestrogenism does not seem to cause a difference in the symptom scores. To observe a possible significant difference, it is necessary to evaluate older women or women with a longer duration of hypoestrogenism. These findings suggest the cause for the decreased bladder weight to be the higher duration of hypoestrogenism rather than the older age