‘I don’t know whether it is to do with age or to do with hormones and whether it is do with a stage in your life’: Making sense of menopause and the body
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online February, 2013
‘I don’t know whether it is to do with age or to do with hormones and whether it is do with a stage in your life’: Making sense of menopause and the body
This article discusses a mixed-methods study that explored women’s views about menopause and any relationship between these and several measures of body consciousness. A total of 270 women in the United Kingdom completed surveys of menopausal attitudes, self-objectification, body surveillance and body shame. There was a positive association between rating highly on body dissatisfaction scales and holding negative attitudes towards menopause. Interviews (n = 12) were conducted to investigate this further. Menopause was inextricably linked with aging for these women, and changing appearance was a particular concern for women who rated high on self-objectification. The implications of this are discussed.
AtwoodJDMcElgunLCelinY. (2008) The socially constructed meanings of menopause: Another case of manufactured madness?Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy: Innovations in Clinical and Educational Interventions7(2): 150–174.
2.
AvisNMcKinleyNM (1991) A longitudinal analysis of women’s attitudes toward the menopause: Results from the Massachusetts women’s health study. Maturitas13(1): 65–79.
3.
AyersBForshawMHunterMS (2010) The impact of attitudes towards the menopause on women’s symptom experience: A systematic review. Maturitas65(1): 28–36.
4.
BartlettMS (1954) A note on the multiplying factors for various chi square approximations. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B16: 296–298.
5.
BauerM.W.(2000) Classic content analysis: a review in BauerM.W.GaskellG (eds) Qualitative researching with text, image and sound: a practical handbook, London, Sage, 263–280.
6.
Berecki-GisolfJBegumNDobsonAJ (2009) Symptoms reported by women in midlife: Menopausal transition or aging?Menopause-The Journal of the North American Menopause Society16(5): 1021–1029.
7.
BessenoffGRDel PrioreRE (2007) Women, weight, and age: Social comparison to magazine images across the lifespan. Sex Roles56(3–4): 215–222.
8.
BondMBywatersP (1998) Working it out for ourselves: Women learning about hormone replacement therapy. Women’s Studies International Forum21(1): 65–76.
9.
BowlesC (1986) Measure of attitudes toward menopause using the semantic differential model. Nursing Research35: 81–85.
10.
BuchananMCVillagranMMRaganSL (2002) Women, menopause, and (Ms.)information: Communication about the climacteric. Health Communication14(1): 99–119.
11.
ChrislerJC (2008) 2007 Presidential address: Fear of losing control – Power, perfectionism, and the psychology of women. Psychology of Women Quarterly32(1): 1–12.
12.
ChrislerJCGhizL (1993) Body image issues of older women. Women & Therapy14(1): 67–75.
13.
ConboyL (2001) Women at mid-life: Symptoms, attitudes, and choices, an Internet based survey. Maturitas38(2): 129–136.
14.
DeeksA (2003) Psychological aspects of menopause management. Best Practice & Research: Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism17(1): 17–31.
15.
DennersteinLAlexanderJLKotzK (2003) The menopause and sexual functioning: A review of the population-based studies. Annual Review of Sex Research14: 64–82.
16.
DillawayHE (2008) Why can’t you control this? How women’s interactions with intimate partners define menopause and family. Journal of Women and Aging20(1–2): 47–64.
17.
FlickU (2007) An Introduction to Qualitative Research (4th edn). London: SAGE.
18.
FlickU (2009) Managing Quality in Qualitative Research (1st edn). London: SAGE.
19.
FoxcroftL (2009) Hot Flushes, Cold Science: A History of the Modern Menopause. London: Granta Publishers.
20.
FredericksonBRobertsT (1997) Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experience and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly21(2): 173–206.
21.
GergenMM (2009) Framing lives: Therapy with women of a certain age. Women & Therapy32(2–3): 252–266.
22.
GuthrieJRDennersteinLTaffeJR. (2003) Health care–seeking for menopausal problems. Climacteric6(2): 112–117.
23.
HarrellZATFredricksonBLPomerleauCS. (2006) The role of trait self-objectification in smoking among college women. Sex Roles54: 735–743.
24.
HunterMRendallM (2007) Bio-psycho-socio-cultural perspectives on menopause. Best Practice & Research: Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology21(2): 261–274.
KaiserH (1970) A second-generation little jiffy. Psychometrika35: 401–415.
27.
KaiserH (1974) An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika39: 31–36.
28.
KaufertP (1996) The social and cultural context of menopause. Maturitas23(2): 169–180.
29.
KhawKT (1992) Epidemiology of the menopause. British Medical Bulletin48(2): 249 –261.
30.
KitzingerS. (1972) The Experience of Childbirth. London, Victor Gollanz
31.
KronenbergF (1990) Hot flashes: Epidemiology and physiology. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences592(1): 52–86.
32.
Lagro-JanssenALMKnufingMWASchreursL. (2010) Significant fall in hormone replacement therapy prescription in general practice. Family Practice27(4): 424–429.
33.
LeiblumSSwartzmanL (1986) Women’s attitudes toward the menopause: An update. Maturitas8(1): 47–56.
34.
LewisDMCachelinFM (2001) Body image, body dissatisfaction, and eating attitudes in midlife and elderly women. Eating Disorders9: 29–39.
35.
Lindh-ÅstrandLHoffmannMHammarM. (2007) Women’s conception of the menopausal transition – A qualitative study. Journal of Clinical Nursing16(3): 509–517.
36.
LockM (1982) Models and practice in medicine: Menopause as syndrome or life transition?Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry6(3): 261–280.
37.
LockM (1991) Contested meanings of the menopause. Lancet337(8752): 1270–1272.
38.
LuffGMGrayJJ (2009) Complex messages regarding a thin ideal appearing in teenage girls’ magazines from 1956 to 2005. Body Image6(2): 133–136.
39.
McKinlaySBrambillaDPosnerJ (1992) The normal menopause transition. Maturitas14(2): 103–115.
40.
McKinleyNM (2006) The developmental and cultural contexts of objectified body consciousness: A longitudinal analysis of two cohorts of women. Developmental Psychology42(4): 679–687.
41.
McKinleyNMHydeJS (1996) The objectified body consciousness scale development and validation. Psychology of Women Quarterly20(2): 181–215.
42.
McKinleyNMLyonLA (2008) Menopausal attitudes, objectified body consciousness, aging anxiety, and body esteem: European American women’s body experiences in midlife. Body Image5(4): 375–380.
43.
McLarenLHardyRKuhD (2003) Women’s body satisfaction at midlife and lifetime body size: A prospective study. Health Psychology22(4): 370–377.
44.
MoradiBHuangY-P (2008) Objectification theory and psychology of women: A decade of advances and future directions. Psychology of Women Quarterly32(4): 377–398.
45.
NeighborsLSobalJLiffC. (2008) Weighing weight: Trends in body weight evaluation among young adults, 1990 and 2005. Sex Roles59(1–2): 68–80.
NeugartenBWoodVKrainesRJ. (1963) Women’s attitudes to menopause. Vita Humana6(3): 140–151.
48.
NollSMFredricksonBL (1998) A mediational model linking self-objectification, body shame, and disordered eating. Psychology of Women Quarterly22(4): 623–636.
49.
OakleyA. (1980) Women Confined: Towards a Sociology of Childbirth, Oxford, Martin Robertson
50.
O’ConnorVDelmarCSheehanM. (1994) Do psycho-social factors contribute more to symptom reporting by middle-aged women than hormonal status?Maturitas20(2–3): 63–69.
51.
PapaliaDE (ed.) (2007) Adult Development and Aging (3rd edn). New York: McGraw-Hill.
52.
ParenteLUyeharaCLarsenW. (2008) Long-term impact of the women’s health initiative on HRT. Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics277(3): 219–224.
53.
Piot-ZieglerC.SassiM.RaffoulW.DelaloyeJ. (2010). Mastectomy, body deconstruction, and impact on identity: A qualitative study. British Journal of Health Psychology, 15 (Pt. 3), 479–510. doi:10.1348/135910709X472174.
54.
RosenGRossA (1968) Relationship of body image to self-concept. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology32(1): 100.
55.
RozinPFallonA (1988) Body image, attitudes to weight, and misperceptions of figure preferences of the opposite sex: A comparison of men and women in two generations. Journal of Abnormal Psychology97(3): 342–345.
56.
SilversteinBPerdueLPetersonB. (1986) The role of the mass media in promoting a thin standard of bodily attractiveness for women. Sex Roles14(9–10): 519–532.
57.
SmithMJMannEMirzaA. (2011) Men and women’s perceptions of hot flushes within social situations: Are menopausal women’s negative beliefs valid?Maturitas69(1): 57–62.
58.
SypeckMFGrayJJAhrensAH (2004) No longer just a pretty face: Fashion magazines’ depictions of ideal female beauty from 1959 to 1999. International Journal of Eating Disorders36(3): 342–347.
59.
TiggemannM (2004) Body image across the adult life span: Stability and change. Body Image1: 29–41.
60.
TiggemannMLynchJ (2001) Body image across the life span in adult women: The role of self-objectification. Developmental Psychology37(2): 243–253.
61.
UtianWH (2004) Menopause-related definitions. International Congress Series1266: 133–138.
62.
UtianW.H (1999) The International Menopause Society menopause-related terminology definitions, Climacteric, 2284–286.
63.
WatkinsM.W. (2000) Monte Carlo PCA for parallel analysis [computer software]. State College, PA: Ed & Psych Associates
64.
WilsonRA (1968) Feminine Forever. M. Evans & Company. New York: M. Evans. 1966
65.
Writing Group for the Women’s Health Initiative Investigators (2002) Risk and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy post-menopausal women: Principal results from the women’s health initiative randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association288(3): 321–333.
