Estimation of natural age of menopause in Iranian women: A meta-analysis study

The mean age of menopause have been reported at the age of 51 in the world and regarding the increase in life expectancy in many countries more than a third of the life time of women i s in menopause period. The importance of menopause is due to its relationship with various diseases and quality of life. The present study was conducted to estimate the average natural age of menopause in women based on a meta-analysis study.

In a meta-analysis study on all the existing articles in the natural age o f menopause in Iran, 21 articles were selected based on inclusion criteria. Begg and Egger tests fo r publication bias and Cochrane test were used to determine the heterogeneity among samples.? ??? estimate of mean calculated based on Random effect model in Stata11 software.

The publication bias assumption was rejected by Begg and Egger tests with significant value s equal to 0.174 and 0.446 respectively. There was a heterogeneity among samples (Q=4626.3, df=20, P<0.001). So based on random effect model the mean age of menopause was calculated as 48.183 with 95 % CI=47.457-48.91.

The average age of natural menopause in Iranian women is favorable to some places of Middle East, but is less compared with developed countries and the world mean. Because of the importance of this period in women, educational programs seem to be necessary.