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Global Health Econ Sustain                                         Stochastic modeling of age at menopausal



            woman’s lifespan is typically categorized into the following   menopause was significantly different for women who were
            phases: infancy; puberty (adolescence); sexual maturation   married  and never  married.  The  mean age  at menopause
            (reproductive age); climacteric period; and post-climacteric   for 2200 US respondents who had experienced natural
            years (Takeda, 2010). Two events, the starting and the   menopause is found to be 50.5 to 51.4 years, it was 43.8 to
            termination of natural menstruations, also known as   53 years for European and Latin American women as well
            menarche and menopause, are considered milestones in   as 42.1 to 49.5  years for Asian women. They claimed that
            women’s reproductive life as they are markers of the starting   the natural menopausal age was affected by their lifestyle,
            and the ending of women’s reproductive life. The term   reproductive behavior, and genetic factors.
            “menopause” was first introduced by French physician   A similar pattern of mean age at menopause has been
            Gordanne in 1821 and was reported on the trends in the   found in the case of Nepalese women. A cross-sectional
            age at menopause by researchers since Sanes’s research work   survey of two rural districts of Nepal by Aryal & Yadava
            (Sanes, 1918). According to the World Health Organization’s   (2005) estimated that the median menopausal age was
            fact sheet on menopause, the majority of women go through   47 years using the life table technique and 46 years using
            menopause as a result of natural aging around the age of 45 –
            55 (WHO, 2022). Researchers around the globe have focused   data computation. They also estimated that different
            on describing the status and determinants of menopause,   ethnicities and working females have slightly higher ages
            yet mathematical modeling of menopausal timing has not   at menopause than non-working females. Another sample

            been explicitly explained. In this article, a stochastic analysis   survey by Rajbhandari et al. (2013) found that the mean
            of age at menopause was performed. Mathematical and   menopausal age was 47  years with a standard deviation
                                                               of 5  years; furthermore, the data were differentiated for
            probabilistic analysis of age at menopause helps to predict   different ethnicities and it was reported that the Gurung
            the current and future scenario.
                                                               community women had the highest menopausal age of
              Different factors contribute to the timing of menopause   50 years whereas the Bahun/Chhetri community’s women
            in women. Gold et al. (2001) identified the factors for the   had the lowest menopausal age of 44  years. Another
            timing of menopause, namely, genetics; living factors like   descriptive study conducted in the Kapilvastu district of
            body weight, smoking, prior use of oral contraceptives, and   Nepal found that the average and median age at menopause
            alcohol consumption; environmental factors like exposure   were 46.3 and 47 years, respectively (Ghimire et al., 2015).
            to certain chemicals or pollutants; medical conditions;
            and race/ethnicity. This study focused on describing the   Apart from the status and differentials of menopause,
            distributional pattern of the age at menopause, and some   some researchers studied to find the associated factors of age
            probability distributions were used to model the data. The   at menopause. Gupta et al. (2016) identified that menopausal
            logistic and Rayleigh-generated log-logistic (RGLLog)   symptoms  were  common  among  rural women  visiting
            distributions were found to be appropriate to describe the   Nepal’s district hospital. Khadka  et al. (2018) established
            age at menopause of Nepalese women.                among  post-climacteric  females  having  osteoporosis,  the
                                                               year since menopause is positively correlated with body mass
            2. Age at menopause of women                       index, inorganic phosphorus, and alkaline phosphatase, but
                                                               negatively correlated with the levels of calcium and vitamin D.
            The age at menopause of women is a pivotal stage of
            women’s reproductive life which is a marker of aging as   Around the globe, the mathematical modeling of
            well as the health status of women. Research on the analysis   demographic variables has given considerable effort by
            of menopause around the globe is confined primarily to   researchers, but it is less in Asian countries (Gaire & Aryal,
            determining the average age at menopause. Jaszmann (1976)    2015). One of the primary demographic indicators, along
            showed that the average age at menopause for the Netherlands   with migration and death, is fertility, which is directly affected
            women was 51.4  years with a variability of 3.8  years. He   by the age at menarche and menopause. Krailo & Pike (1983)
            found that the timing of menopause is not associated with   found that the logistic distribution best fitted for American
            environmental factors, education, physical type, age at   women’s menopausal age. Greer et al. (2003) described the
            menarche, and pregnancy outcomes. Similarly, the average   distribution of menopausal age using the quadruple-Gaussian
            age at menopause reported by the World Health Organization   curve. Jaszmann (1976) showed that the age at menopause for
            was 51 years for industrialized countries in the 1990s (WHO,   Netherlands women is approximately normally distributed.
            1996). Greer et al. (2003) estimated the average and median   Boldsen & Jeune (1990) analyzed the timing of menopause
            age at menopause for Saudi Arabian women were 48.94 and   using the Probit method and expressed the distribution in the
            50 years, respectively. Furthermore, Priya et al. (2009) found   Probit diagrams depicting frequency distribution similarly to
            an average age at menopause of 46.04 years among Kshatriya   a normal distribution. Aryal & Yadava (2005) forwarded the
            females in India. Palacios et al. (2010) determined that age at   concept of fitting probability distribution to explain the timing


            Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023)                         2                        https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.1239
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