Caught in the web: The social construction of menopause as disease

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study of 150 women's experience of menopause, in this case focusing on the experience of 20 women who experienced difficulties so intense that their lives were seriously disrupted. A hierarchical framework is proposed which allows for the interaction between the individual experience (biological, behavioural and personal), the family situation, social structure and the culture. Women who experience serious disruption of their lives during the menopause attribute their problems to depression, sometimes complicated by serious physical, family or social factors. For these women a disease construction of menopause offers their best chance of access to help and treatment. At the same time, a construction of menopause as a normal social transition is needed to account for the experience of women who do not suffer intense, disruptive problems.