A systematic review of prevalence of vasomotor and sexual symptoms among Iranian women

Background: Due to decline in estrogen levels in menopause, women may experience different physical, vasomotor, psychological and sexual symptoms. The aim of this study was to systematically review the published articles reporting on the prevalence of vasomotor and sexual symptoms in Iranian women.Methods: Five databases including MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, SCOPUS and Google scholar as well as four Iranian databases such as SID, Iranmedex, IranDoc and Magiran were searched in January 2016 to retrieve studies reporting on the prevalence of vasomotor and sexual symptoms in Iranian midlife women. Risk of bias was assessed using a standard risk of bias tool.Result: Twelve independent studies met our inclusion criteria and provided data for this review. The prevalence of vasomotor and sexual symptoms was high although the ranges were wide. This might be due to utilization of different study designs, methods of recruitment, instruments, and time frame over which symptoms were assessed. There was a lack of information in most studies on the severity of symptoms as an important determining factor for clinical use. Distress-associated with sexual symptoms has not been assessed in any of studies. High risk of bias was observed for the eleven studies for both external and internal validity. Conclusion: High quality research is needed to establish the true portray for the prevalence and severity of vasomotor and sexual symptoms in Iranian women.

کلیدواژه ها:

Prevalence ، Sexual symptoms ، Vasomotor symptoms ، Menopause