Assessment of the effects of menopause on individual women: a review of literature.

This paper presents a review of literature for a research study, “Assessment of the Effects of Menopause on Individual Women.”; Three broad problem areas are identified: physiological signs and symptoms of menopause, psychological signs and symptoms, and psychosocial factors associated with menopause. The discussion of psychosocial factors also includes a review of general developmental tasks of the middle‐aged adult. The paper first includes a discussion of present knowledge about menopause. Second, the etiology of menopause is discussed. Third, a review of commonly recurring physiological and psychological signs and symptoms is presented, and last is a discussion of the psychosocial factors commonly associated with menopause.