Scientific Research and Essays Vol. 5 (24), pp. 4077-4079, 18 December, 2010 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/SRE ISSN 1992-2248 ©2010 Academic Journals Short Communication Severity of menopausal symptoms, and knowledge attitude and practices towards menopause among Saudi women Alaa Yasen Al-Olayet*, Ibtisam Farhan Al-Qahtani, Dalal Ibrahim Al-Essa, Fatimah Habeeb Al- Saleek, Reem Naif Al-Moutary, Lama Mouhamad Al-Mudimeg, Samera Abdulrahman Al-Marri, Sana Saleh Al-Shemari and Maha Osama Ajab nor Department of Family and Community Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), College of Medicine, King Saud University (KSU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Accepted 3 December, 2010 Few researches dealt with the mean age and the correlation between menopause and osteoporosis in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). For this reason the authors have the idea to study severity of menopausal symptoms and knowledge, attitude and practice towards menopause among Saudi women. In this cross - sectional study, a sample of 233 Saudi women from 45 to 55 years old was collected randomly in Primary Care Clinic, King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh. The data collection was in a form of questionnaire. The sample was categorized into 3 groups: premenopausal, perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. The severities of menopausal symptoms using menopause quality of life (MENQOL) questionnaire were as follows: Menopausal symptoms experienced by women in sample recorded that 68.51% suffered from hot flashes and excessive sweating, 37.7% dryness of vagina and 30.7% sexual problems. In assessing knowledge attitude and practices (KAP) towards menopause, 57.5% recognized that menopause was concerned with stop of menstruation and 47.9% denying the physical and psychological effects of menopause. Concerning the severity of symptoms, the hot flashes and excessive sweating was the most sever and frequent symptoms among three groups. And the authors needed more awareness towards menopause in Saudi community. Key words: Menopause, menopausal symptoms, KAP towards menopause in Saudi. INTRODUCTION Menopause is defined as the time of life when menstrual cycles cease, and is caused by reduced secretion of the ovarian hormones estrogen and progesterone. Natural menopause is diagnosed after 12 months of amenorrhea not associated with a pathological cause (Nelson, 2008). Menopause can be induced by surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. Many symptoms have been attributed to menopause, but only vasomotor dysfunction and vaginal dryness are consistently associated with this time of life in epidemiological studies. Other common symptoms, such as mood, changes sleep disturbances, urinary *Corresponding author. E-mail: olayet@netscape.net. Tel: +966569554517, +96614543362. incontinence, cognitive changes, somatic complaints, sexual dysfunction, and reduced quality of life may be secondary to other symptoms, or related to other cause (Dudley et al., 1998; Taffe and Dennerstein, 2002). MATERIALS AND METHODS In this cross - sectional study, a sample of 233 Saudi women aged from 45 to 55 years old was collected randomly in Primary Care Clinic in King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh from 22 September, 2007 to 9 May, 2008. The data collection was in a form of questionnaire. With inclusion criteria; Saudi women between ages of 45 to 55 years attending primary care center (PCC) in KKUH and exclusion criteria: Non Saudi women, severely ill patients, women who take anti-depressive drugs and who did total ovariectomy.