[Age of menopause onset in Canary Islands women].

Background: To establish the age at menopause in the Canary woman. To study the possible influence of habitat, socioeconomical status and other possible factors on it.

Methods: From an initial population of 742 women, we previously excluded those that were not menopausal at the moment of the study and those that suffered it as a result of a oophorectomy. We included 394 women that had a natural menopause in the study group.

Results: The mean age of menopause was 48.6 years old. There were no statistical differences between the natural or urban areas. Neither the age of menarche nor the number of pregnancies had any influence on the age of menopause. Women with high socioeconomical status had the menopause later (50.7 years old) than hose with medium or low socioeconomical status (48.6 and 48.4 years old respectively).

Discussion: Comparing the age of menopause found in our study (48.6 years) with the published in other papers, this is very similar to the age mean reported in other spanish studies but a little lower than the age of menopause established in some occidental countries.