the impact of soy milk toward perimenopause syndrome and estrogen hormone level among women older than 50 years in semarang, indonesia

Background: menopausal symptoms have an important impact on daily activities, social life and sexual life of menopausal women that require more respect, attention, and an intensive care especially in relation to food consumption and physical activity. soy isoflavones, which are chemical compounds found in soy, have estrogen-like effects and may help reduce hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause. this study investigated whether soy milk can impact the perimenopause syndrome among women older than 50 years in semarang, indonesia.methods: in a quasi-experimental research with a pre-test and posttest study design, data was collected by using simple random sampling among 81 respondents who were involved in this study; while 24 women belonged to intervention group and 57 females were assigned to control group. the frequency distribution, average and standard deviation were employed to describe independent variables.results: educational level had a significant contribution to perimenopausal syndrome symptoms (p=0.001). the age and hormonal levels showed a significant contribution to perimenopausal syndrome symptoms too (p=0.064 and p=0.097, respectively). the control and experimental groups had significant differences regarding estrogen hormone level (p=0.05).conclusion: this study concluded that soy milk intake could increase estrogen level and reduce complaints of perimenopause syndrome which was also influenced by age and educational level too.