A review of menopause nomenclature
Date
2022-01-31
Authors
Ambikairajah, Ananthan
Walsh, Erin
Cherbuin, Nicolas
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
Menopause nomenclature varies in the scholarly literature making synthesis and interpretation of research fndings
difcult. Therefore, the present study aimed to review and discuss critical developments in menopause nomenclature;
determine the level of heterogeneity amongst menopause defnitions and compare them with the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop criteria. Defnitions/criteria used to characterise premenopausal and postmenopausal status
were extracted from 210 studies and 128 of these studies were included in the fnal analyses. The main fndings were
that 39.84% of included studies were consistent with STRAW classifcation of premenopause, whereas 70.31% were
consistent with STRAW classifcation of postmenopause. Surprisingly, major inconsistencies relating to premenopause
defnition were due to a total lack of reporting of any defnitions/criteria for premenopause (39.84% of studies). In
contrast, only 20.31% did not report defnitions/criteria for postmenopause. The present fndings indicate that there
is a signifcant amount of heterogeneity associated with the defnition of premenopause, compared with postmenopause. We propose three key suggestions/recommendations, which can be distilled from these fndings. Firstly,
premenopause should be transparently operationalised and reported. Secondly, as a minimum requirement, regular
menstruation should be defned as the number of menstrual cycles in a period of at least 3 months. Finally, the utility
of introducing normative age-ranges as supplementary criterion for defning stages of reproductive ageing should be
considered. The use of consistent terminology in research will enhance our capacity to compare results from diferent
studies and more efectively investigate issues related to women’s health and ageing.
Description
Keywords
Menopause, Nomenclature, STRAW, WHO
Citation
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Source
Reproductive Health
Type
Journal article
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Open Access
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Creative Commons Attribution License
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