Early Menopause: Reproductive Adaptation of Javanese Women in West Papua

Abstract

Menopause is the permanent cessation of menstruation due to the loss of ovarian follicular activity. Assessment of age at menopause is important because several studies reveal a high risk of morbidity and mortality. This study aims to determine the factors risk of early age at menopause in Javanese women in Oransbari, West Papua Province. The cross-sectional sampling method was carried out on women at average aged 51.73 years with an interval of 40.18–69.59 years. Age at menopause was calculated using Probit Generalized Linear Model (GLM) analysis. We used a binary logit regression model to estimate factors risk of early menopause. Age at menopause divides into two categories, normal (>45 years) and early (<45 years). Our results showed that the average menopause at aged 43.1 years was categorized as early menopause with an age range of 39.61-55.28 years. The results of the partial parameter significant test at a significant level of 5% showed that education, occupation, age at marriage and menarche were risk factors that influenced the occurrence of early menopause. The classification accuracy of the resulting binary logistic regression model is 65,1%. We argue that early menopause was an adaptive response to environmental challenges as a pioneer transmigration community. In facing the challenges of an unfavourable environment such as high physical activity and low socioeconomic status, energy was allocated to the benefit characters that were younger age at menarche, menopause and marriage. The biocultural conditions experienced at the beginning of life in Oransbari shape a younger age of reproductive character as an adaptive response to maximize fitness.