Validation of the Menopause Transition Scale (MTS)

Abstract

Objective: All women will experience menopause transition, and a majority will experience symptoms that negatively affect their quality of life. Current validated menopause symptom scales are time consuming, phrased in clinical language, and difficult to adopt for digital use. This study seeks to validate a short novel survey which can be reliably completed without coaching and accurately represents the experience of the menopause transition.

Methods: We developed a patient-centric questionnaire (Menopause Transition Scale, MTS) to examine for symptoms of menopause. Survey responders represented a total of 144 women with at least one symptom of menopause. Survey responders included women affected by cancer aged 30 to 65 (n = 72) and women not affected by cancer aged 45 to 60 (n = 72). Cronbach Alpha was used to examine for internal consistency and dimensionality was assessed using exploratory factor analysis. The cross-validation was analyzed against established patient scales using Spearman correlations or Chi-Square analysis, as appropriate.

Results: The MTS questions showed internal consistency with a Cronbach Alpha of 0.63. The individual questions loaded into three unique domains. The MTS overall correlated with validated scales for menopause symptoms, the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (r = -0.86, P < 0.0001) and Greene Climacteric Scale (r = -0.65, P < 0.0001). Libido correlated with scales (P = 0.0150) and subscales (r = -0.70, P < 0.0001) relating low sexual desire. Energy (r = -0.62, P < 0.0001), Mood (r = -0.48, P < 0.0001), and Hot Flashes/Night Sweats (r = -0.77, P < 0.0001) correlated with scales and subscales related to mood, depression, and vasomotor symptoms. The majority of our responders expressed mild vaginal bleeding. The highest frequency of severe symptoms were low libido and poor energy.

Conclusions: The MTS is a short thorough patient-centric survey that is readily amenable to digital adoption to measure symptoms of menopause as women transition in the out-patient setting. Further study is needed for the longitudinal assessment of symptoms through the transition process and the response of women to therapeutic options.Video Summary: http://links.lww.com/MENO/A938.