The influence of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the quality of life of women who reach menopause

Prz Menopauzalny. 2023 Sep;22(3):142-147. doi: 10.5114/pm.2023.131545. Epub 2023 Sep 28.

Abstract

Introduction: At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing adequate medical care in all its aspects, including the care of women with menopause and keeping social distance, was a challenge. Menopause results in a lower level of oestrogens and progesterone, which is the cause of lower immunological response and may result in more people being ill with COVID-19. The aim of the research was to evaluate the correlation between being sick with COVID-19 and the quality of life of women with menopause.

Material and methods: The research was done in a group of 249 women with menopause. The criteria deciding about inclusion into the group were as follows: female gender, age 40-65 years, time after infection with SARS-CoV-2 virus 14-30 days, no hospitalization, and diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection by means of anti-gene test. A propriety survey was used as well as medical documents analysis and a questionnaire with standardized WHOQOL-BREF. SPSS Statistics 27.0 program was used for statistical analysis. In all calculations p < 0.05 was accepted as the level of significance.

Results: While evaluating the quality of life in the case of women after suffering from COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, no statistically significant difference was observed. The correlation between the level of satisfaction with one's health and suffering from SARS-CoV-2 was within the range of α = 0.1, with a significance level p = 0.061.

Conclusions: No statistically significant correlation was noted between the quality of life of women with menopause after SARS-CoV-2 and women who did not suffer from it.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; coronavirus SARS-CoV-2; menopause; quality of life.