Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women.
Objective: This study was performed to determine the symptoms of menopause and quality of life in women with and without breast cancer.
Methods: This descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study was performed in hospitals of Babol, Mazandaran province, Iran, in two groups of women with and without breast cancer. The study population included all women with menopausal symptoms who were divided into two groups containing 100 women apiece. A checklist containing menopausal symptoms was collected from these two groups and the standard questionnaire EORTC-QLQ-C30 was utilized to assess the quality of life in the case group and the standard questionnaire SF-36 was used in the control case. Data were analyzed by SPSS software.
Results: Depression and insomnia were significantly higher in the case group and control group, respectively (p <0.05), but other symptoms of menopause were not significantly different in the two groups (P>0.05). In the case group, the overall quality of lifewas assessed as good in 36.3% of patients. Also, the quality of life in the control group had the lowest score relevant to the item Neshat with an average of 55.6 and the highest score related to the item of social performance with an average of 73.25.
Conclusion: According to the results, the symptoms of menopause in women with breast cancer were not much different from women without breast cancer. Meanwhile, the quality of life of women with a history of cancer was good.