Bangladesh 1993-1994 Demographic and Health ... - Measure DHS

5.7 Termination of Exposure to PregnancyThe risk of pregnancy declines with age, as increasing proportions of women become infecund.While the onset of infecundity is difficult to determine for an individual woman, there are ways of estimatingit for a population. Two indicators of decreasing exposure to the risk of pregnancy for women age 30 andolder are displayed in Table 5.9.The first, an indicator of menopause, is the proportion of currently married women who are neitherpregnant nor postpartum amenorrheic, but who have not had a menstrual period in the six months precedingthe survey. This proportion increases steadily with age, from 3 percent for women age 30-34 years to 50percent for women age 48-49.The second is an indicator of long-term abstinence. This is the proportion of currently marriedwomen who did not have sexual intercourse in the three years preceding the survey. As the table shows, longtermabstinence is not a major contributor to lower fertility. The proportion of women who did not havesexual intercourse in the three years preceding the survey is less than 2 percent except among those age 46-49,where it is 3~- percent.Table 5.9 Termination of exposure to the risk ofpregnancyIndicators of menopause and long-term abstinenceamong currently married women age 30-49, by age,Bangladesh 1993-94NumberAgeLong-termMenopause I abstinence 2ofwomen30-34 2.6 0.9 135335-39 4.6 1.5 107940~11 10.6 1.7 34942-4344-4515.225.11.51.628826646-47 36.3 2.7 21248-49 49.8 4.1 194Total 10.9 1.5 3741IPercentage of currently married women whose lastmenstrual period occurred six or more monthspreceding the survey or who report that they aremenopausal.2percentage of currently married women who did nothave intercourse in the three years preceding thesurvey.79