What is Quality of Life?

What do we all expect from life? Happiness, security, good health, money, success, recreation… 

Ah! The list may seem endless! 

However, not surprisingly, a desire commonly shared by everyone is a good “Quality of Life”

What is Quality of Life?

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Quality of Life (QoL) is the degree to which an individual is healthy, comfortable, and able to participate in or enjoy life events. 

Seems pretty simple! But is it? Well, life is much more complicated than that!

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What does Quality of Life depend on?

Quality of Life is a subjective, multifaceted concern that depends on the degree of independence of the person, their social interactions, and it can mean different things for different individuals. What is important for one may not be important for another. But health- both physical and mental, or psychological, remains one of the most important of the facets of QoL.

Quality of Life & Menopause

Up to 95 to 96% of women experience some sort of unpleasant symptoms during their menopausal transition. This period in a woman's life entails many events happening at the same time. Unpleasant physical symptoms, ageing and lifestyle-related diseases, social issues like retirement from work and the infamous “empty nest syndrome”. 

An increase in life expectancy has consequently increased the time a woman spends in her menopausal transition with senescence increasing as well. Senescence is the gradual biological ageing. In medical terms, it is the process in which cell growth stops and thus, ageing occurs. 

But when is the quality of life affected most? It has been seen that the QoL is specifically affected more in the perimenopausal and the early menopausal time than later on. The transition phase is when the symptoms are more severe and thus troublesome.

Can Quality of Life be measured?

There are many subjective scales to gauge your quality of life. But Quality of Life continues to be an all-encompassing term and there is no conformity yet on how exactly it can be measured. Although looking at it from a wider angle, we can say that for most people, QoL may include four main factors:

- Occupational wellbeing

- Physical health

- Sexual wellbeing

- Emotional Health

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Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL)

Another term called “Health-related QoL” or “HRQoL” comes into play. Though it may not be the only way to gauge overall life satisfaction, HRQoL includes the overall physical and mental health, as well as a woman’s risk of suffering from many chronic diseases related to and occurring around the time of menopause. These chronic diseases can include weaker bones, osteopenia and osteoporosis, heart ailments, diabetes etc.

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Physical as well as emotional support to the woman around menopause can help her maintain or improve her QoL. Humans are social by nature. Social connections with other women who are going through the same phase of life can help women tide over this phase. It is often relieving to know that you are not alone in this and that there is a solution available to these troublesome symptoms.

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The key takeaway

Sharing your problems and getting emotional support can ensure you get the right kind of help at the right time. The type of assistance you need will depend on your specific problems and their severity.

But what is important is that every woman is entitled to a good quality of life. This means that no complaint should be belittled. A woman should not be denied treatment even for the mildest of symptoms that affect her quality of life.

So do not hesitate to talk to who you confide in.

Our experts are just a call away! 

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