Exploring the prevalence of menopause symptoms in midlife women in methadone maintenance treatment.

Menopause is a natural process that occurs in women's lives as part of normal aging. Many women go through the menopausal transition with few or no symptoms, while some have significant or even disabling symptoms. The purpose of this paper is to describe the menopausal symptom experience of 135 urban methadone-maintained midlife women between the ages of 40 and 55 years. A cross-sectional survey comprising sample characteristic questions and a 14-item menopause symptom checklist was administered. Ninety-six percent reported one or more symptoms with a mean of 6.2 symptoms. Symptom reporting was found to be relatively high, with more than half of the sample reporting hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbances, joint pains, and fatigue in the two weeks preceding the survey. However, the psychological symptoms (irritability and depression) were the two most common symptoms in this sample. This study documents a relatively heavy burden of symptoms in an aging cohort of methadone-maintained women. The physical and psychological impact of aging and, in particular, the experience of menopause in these women is rarely studied and poorly understood. This gap in critical knowledge is further complicated by the remarkable similarity of many symptoms associated with menopause and opiate withdrawal. Aging, drug-related health problems, and poor access to health care further complicate the picture and underscore the importance of better integration of health care with social work intervention.