Quality of life and climacteric symptoms in post-menopausal women receiving hormone therapy for breast cancer

Abstract Objective To assess quality of life and climacteric symptoms for post-menopausal women receiving hormone therapy for breast cancer. Methods A prospective observational study of women treated at the Mastology Outpatient Clinic of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology was conducted between 2015 and 2019. Post-menopausal patients who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and who were experience climacteric symptoms were selected. These patients had undergone surgery, radiotherapy, and/or chemotherapy more than one year prior and were receiving tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor. A total of 57 women were recruited and during visits completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Blatt-Kupperman Menopausal Index (KI), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life version-bref (WHOQOL-bref) scale. Repeated measures ANOVA, and Friedman and Pearson tests were conducted. Results Patients had a mean age of 54.4 ±5.9 years, 86% had ductal carcinoma, 98% had undergone surgery, 70% had received chemotherapy and 96% had received radiotherapy. Scores on the KI (P Conclusions The correlation of the scales showed that reduction in climacteric symptoms is associated with significant improvements in quality of life measures.