Determination of alternative medicine use for complaints encountered during menopause

The study was conducted descriptively and sectional to determine of alternative medicine use for complaints encountered during menopause. The universe of the study consisted of women admitted to the Obstetrics and Gynecology polyclinic of Bursa Uludağ University Medical Faculty Hospital Health Practice and Research Center in 2019. The sample of the study consisted of womens who came to the polyclinic between February 4 and May 31, 2019, ages of 40 and 60, accepted to participate in the study, did not have communication and self-expression problems, in menopauses. The data of the study were collected by survey form and Menopause Rating Scale. Face to face interview technique was used to collect study data. Whether the data showed normal distribution or not was examined by Shapiro-Wilk test. The data that were not normally distributed were compared between the two independent groups using the Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson chi-square test was used in the analysis of categorical data. The level of significance was determined as p<0.05. The mean age of womens was 52,14±5,62 years. 56.2% of women had chronic disease, the most common chronic disease (33.7%) was hypertension. 55.9% of the women did not use menopausal treatment, 8.3% of those who used treatment were HRT, 27.8% took vitamin D, 18.8% took vitamin B12 and 12.2% of calcium medication. It was determined that 42.4% of women used alternative medicine. The Menopause Symptoms Rating Scale total score of women was found to be 16.04 ± 6.95 (0-44). A significant difference was found between the scale score and the use of alternative medicine (p<0,05), No significant difference was found between the scale score and chronic disease, BMI and menopause-specific treatment (p>0,05). A statistically significant difference was found between the vasomotor, emotional, forgetfulness, hair, urogenital, joint-bone, excitability and constipation problems that women during menopause and their scale score (p<0,05). As a result, it was determined that women used various alternative medicine in the complaints they faced with during menopause.