停經階段與心理衛生

本研究目的在檢視停經階段是否影響婦女的心理健康程度。研究對象為1,082位40～60歲社區婦女，自覺心理健康包含正面的自覺快樂、負面的心身症狀與心理症狀三個面向。當控制其他變項（壓力、社會參與、生理健康）後，心身症狀並未因停經階段不同而有差異，心理症狀除停經中期高於停經前期婦女外，其餘停經階段婦女並無不同，自評心理健康則是停經前期婦女優於停經中期與自然停經的婦女，但其他停經階段間則無差異。影響心身症狀與心理症狀的主要因素為生理症狀數，影響自評心理健康的則是自評生理健康、自評社交生活與社團參與；但不同停經階段婦女的影響因素不盡相同。文中並討論過去對停經婦女的負面情緖變化與心理不健康概念的迷思，以及心理健康的正負面意涵。

Based on the women's study ideology, this paper examined how the menopausal stages really affect the self-perceived positive mental (the happiness) and negative mental health (the psychological and psychosomatic discomforts). 1,082 community women, aged 40-60, from the north, east, south, and middle areas of Taiwan (including metropolitan and rural areas), were face to face interviewed by trained public health nurses or medical related graduate school students. The interview questions include the self perceived mental health (happiness and psychological discomforts), menopausal stages (pre, peri, post, and surgical menopause), self perceived physical discomforts, experiences of chronic diseases, gynecological diseases, stress, as well as social support network (such as interactions with the relatives, participation of social activities, and etc.). Results showed that there are no significant differences among menopausal stages and psychosomatic discomforts after controlling the variables of stress, social support network, and physical discomforts. With respect to psychological discomforts, except peri-menopausal women have higher negative scores than those in the pre-menopausal stage, no difference is identified among other menopausal stages. Additionally, the analysis revealed that pre-menopausal women have better self-perceived positive mental health comparing to peri-menopausal women, and there are no differences among other menopausal stages. The discussion focused on clarifying the previous stereotypes toward women in the menopausal stages and further conceptualizes the true meaning of mental health.