Changes in Haematological Indices of Women at Different Fertility Periods in Nnewi, South-East, Nigeria

Background: Menstruation and menopause have both been shown to significantly affect the concentration of a number of biologically important plasma constituents, including blood counts. Objective: To evaluate the haematological indices of menstruating, premenopausal and menopausal women in Nnewi with a view to establishing possible effects of menstruation and menopause on counts.
Materials and Methods: One hundred and eighty women; comprising 60 menopausal (aged 50-75 years), 120 pre-menopausal (60 aged 20-35 years, who were not menstruating at the point of recruitment and 60 who were menstruating at the period of testing) were recruited by simple random sampling. Socio demographic and other data was collected from each participant with the aid of a questionnaire while 2mls of venous blood was collected (following standard protocols) into ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) specimen container for full blood count estimation, using Prokan® haematology auto-analyzer. Data analysis was done using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20) computer software, results were expressed as means ±SD, while associations between variable were explored using the student t-test and analysis of variance.Ethical clearance was obtained from our institutional review board and all participants gave informed consent. Results: The red blood cell count (RBC) was significantly higher