Ethnicity and adaptation to climacterium.

An investigation was made into the menopausal symptoms and attitudes of 1,148 Israeli women of five different ethnic origins. The results show that, while some of the somatic menopausal symptoms are independent of ethnic origin, psychic and psychosomatic symptoms are more closely associated with this variable. Similarly, the general health of menopausal women also varies with cultural origin. This variation is shown to correlate with the psychic and psychosomatic symptomatology of the climacterium. This study underlines the necessity of a multi-factorial, biological, sociological, psychological and anthropological approach to problems of menopause.