Percepción de los hombres y sus parejas sobre la calidad de vida en el climaterio masculino

objective: to determine if there are differences between men's and their couples' perception of health related quality of life during the male climacteric period. method: cross-sectional and correlational design. the studied sample consisted of 49 couples, made up of men in a range of 40 to 65 years of age and women in a range of 40 to 60 years of age, enrolled in a community health center in concepción, chile. couples were interviewed in their homes after providing informed consent. both members answered the aging males' symptoms independently. descriptive statistics, kappa and student-t tests were used. results: the average age was 53.2 years and 50.7 for men and women, respectively. 58.4% of the men showed any kind of alteration of their quality of life, having more deterioration in the somato-vegetative and sexual subscale. by comparing men scores in three sub-scales to their couples' perception, only psychological sub-scale (p<0.01) presented a significant difference. conclusion: men's perception of quality of life related to health during the male climacteric period is not different from their couples' in somato-vegetative and sexual sub-scales. the psychological subscale is the only exception.