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Beckford, Jane Elizabeth (2023) The big menopause: the word just seems wrong! An interpretative phenomenological analysis of Christian women’s experience of the menopause. Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
Background:
As a universal experience for midlife women, menopause represents a marker of aging and fertility loss that the evidence suggests may have a profound biopsychosocial impact. However, menopause is not well explored in psychological research, particularly in terms of the existential and spiritual questions it may raise for women.
Aim:
To address the gap in research knowledge in terms of understanding how women of faith may utilise their beliefs to make sense of menopause, or conversely, how menopause may challenge women’s experience of their faith at this stage of life.
Method:
A qualitative study investigated the lived experience of six Christian women who were perimenopausal or up to five years postmenopausal. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews and analysed by interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).
Findings:
Three superordinate themes and nine sub-themes emerged, reflecting a sequence where the impact of menopause on identity and sense of self led to efforts to adjust and respond, which for most involved finding perspective through their faith, but this was not without struggle for some. Overall though, participants identified that their faith brought perspective and resilience to the challenges of menopause and most expressed a sense of hope for the future. The implications of the study for clinical practice and further research are discussed.
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