Personality profile in menopausal women

Abstract

Personality profile in menopausal women O. Oguztürk 1 , N. Sagsoz 2 1Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale 2Department of Obstetric and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale (Turkey) Summary Purpose of Investigation: Different menopausal conditions may exhibit different personality traits. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) responses between naturally menopausal women and surgically menopausal women may be different. The authors compared the personality characteristics of naturally and surgically menopausal women by using MMPI. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five surgically menopausal women and 54 natural menopausal women were included in the present study. Psychometric evaluation was established with the Turkish version of the MMPI. The patients were divided into two separate groups as the surgically menopausal women and naturally menopausal women. Results: Surgically menopausal women compared to naturally menopausal women had higher absolute scores on hypochondriasis (66.4 ± 9.2 vs. 57.1 ± 8.0, p = 0.001, respectively). Surgically menopausal women compared to naturally menopausal women had a higher rate of clinical elevation on both depression (40.0 vs. 13.0%, p = 0.007, respectively) and hypochondriasis (60.0 vs. 14.8 %, p = 0.001, respectively). Hypochondriasis t score in patients with menopause was associated with the presence of surgically menopausal status after adjusting for possible confounding factors in multivariate model. Conclusion: Surgical menopause may take the foreground hypochondriac personality traits because of its unique characteristics. Surgically menopausal women are relatively more overworked with their bodies, so they complain of chronic fatigue, pain, and weakness, indicating hypochondriacal personality features. Key words: Surgically menopausal women; Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; Personality traits; Naturally menopausal women.