Health-related quality of life ‘significantly lower’ for menopausal women with HPV

Key takeaways:

• Peri- and postmenopausal women had lower HPV quality of life scores compared with premenopausal women.
• Differences were due to lower scores in sexuality and general and psychological well-being domains.

Peri- and postmenopausal women with HPV have lower health-related quality of life compared with premenopausal counterparts, with the strongest differences observed within the sexuality domain, researchers reported.

“Menopause carries an important social, emotional and physical negative influence on the life of millions of women around the world, and it has a considerable impact on work ability. Furthermore, it is a risk factor for HPV persistence,” Javier Calvo-Torres, MD, a medical resident at the Women Health Institute, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Universidad Complutense of Madrid, and colleagues wrote in Menopause. “Although some authors have suggested several determinants for quality of life in menopause, the role of HPV in perimenopausal or postmenopausal women and its comparison with premenopausal status has not yet been described.”

Calvo-Torres and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional, nationwide, multicenter sample of 1,016 women with a past or current HPV infection diagnosis from 17 regions in Spain. All women completed the HPV Quality of Life (HPV-QoL) questionnaire and researchers compared demographics, clinical characteristics and specific HPV-QoL questionnaire score with general well-being, sexuality, health and contagiousness domains based on reproductive status. In addition, researchers also tested correlations with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, Female Sexual Function Index and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

Overall, 18.8% of women were peri- or postmenopausal.

Total HPV-QoL scores were lower for peri- and postmenopausal women compared with premenopausal women (38.8 vs. 46.4; P < .001). Scores for psychological well-being (36.7 vs. 44.3; P = .01), sexuality (46.2 vs. 60; P < .001) and contagiousness (41.8 vs. 48.6; P = .01) were also lower for peri- and postmenopausal women compared with premenopausal women. Social well-being and health domain scores did not differ among women in analyses stratified by menopause status.

According to the Female Sexual Function Index, among women with sexual dysfunction, adjusted total sexuality, general well-being and psychological well-being domain scores were higher among premenopausal vs. peri- and postmenopausal women (P < .01).

“This difference in quality of life is significant and it is due to a lower score in the sexuality, general well-being and psychological well-being and contagiousness domains,” the researchers wrote. “Health-related quality of life, as assessed with the specific HPV-QoL questionnaire, was found significantly lower in peri-/postmenopausal women with sexual dysfunction according to the Female Sexual Function Index score.”