Women first reported information about the menopause at age 43, when as part of the 1989 sweep, baseline data were collected on menopause, hysterectomy and HRT use. This initial information was expanded in greater detail by the Women's Health in the Middle Years study.

Postal questionnaires were sent out at ages 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, and 54 years, and a total of 1,572 women gave information on at least one of these occasions. Non-responders to the postal questionnaire who were interviewed at the home visit in 1999 completed a short questionnaire about menopause and hysterectomy that matched questions asked on the postal questionnaires. A further follow-up study took place at 57 years (N=1,387). In addition, information was collected on confinements (labour) of women study members.

In all, 1,735 women provided information on menopause and hysterectomy at one of these occasions. At 59 years those who had reported having a hysterectomy (N=374) were sent a questionnaire.

• You can obtain a list of the standard topic variables to use in an NSHD data sharing request by selecting the link at the end of this page.
  
• The XML version of the link can be sent to the LHA as part of a data sharing request.
  
• Simply use your browser's Save As facility to save the list of variables to a file on your computer.
  
• You can then email the XML version to us in support of your application, or when you fill in the data access application form and it asks which variables you need, mention the 'menopause standard basket' along with any others.

HTML version of the standard variables to view

Download the XML for the menopause standard basket