Women's Midlife Confusion: "Why Am I Feeling This Way?"

Abstract

Midlife is a multifaceted stage of woman's development, characterized by important transitions. In an ethnographic study of women's midlife experience of their changing bodies, 11 participants voiced their uncertainty and confusion around bodily changes, responses exacerbated by the lack of consistent health-related information in this area. This confusion emerged as one of the major thematic elements of the study. Midlife women's experience of confusion may reflect a much broader problem, the locus of which is not so much in the women themselves, but rather in negative societal attitudes about aging women. This article describes various aspects of confusion that emerged from the data, and offers implications of the research and recommendations for practitioners.

The menopause ‘It's somewhere between a taboo and a joke’. A focus group study

“…Group meetings allowing women to come together and discuss symptoms that they may be experiencing have been suggested as an ideal setting for women to learn from one another, discuss management strategies used and share information. It has been proposed that this would reduce the burden in general practices for individual counselling appointments 30 . Providing support for women at mid-life appears complex; women in our focus group wanted straightforward information, although there was an emphasis on not dwelling on the problem, so support needs to be delivered in a positive way.…”

Uncertainty during perimenopause: perceptions of older first‐time mothers

“…Lemaire and Lenz (1995) discovered an association between higher levels of education, social support, and the receipt of information about menopause from credible sources and lower levels of uncertainty. Since Lemaire and Lenz’s work, a few qualitative studies (Bannister 2000, Walter 2000, George 2002) have uncovered ‘aspects’ of uncertainty during women’s perimenopausal and menopausal experiences. Women experiencing menopausal changes reported uncertainty and confusion over physiological changes and verbalized dissonance between personal experiences and the information they received from medical sources (Bannister 2000).…”

“…Since Lemaire and Lenz’s work, a few qualitative studies (Bannister 2000, Walter 2000, George 2002) have uncovered ‘aspects’ of uncertainty during women’s perimenopausal and menopausal experiences. Women experiencing menopausal changes reported uncertainty and confusion over physiological changes and verbalized dissonance between personal experiences and the information they received from medical sources (Bannister 2000). Perimenopausal women revealed feeling uncertain about their bodies (Walter 2000) and menopausal women described varying degrees of symptoms and the incongruity of menopausal experiences (George 2002).…”

Habitual physical activity is a meaningful predictor of well-being in mid-life women: a longitudinal analysis

“…The susceptibility of women of this age to biological, psychological and social changes is well evidenced [19][20][21][22] . In a previous publication summarizing our findings on middle-aged women in Melbourne, Australia, we reported on factors associated with decrease in bone density, increase in cardiovascular disease risk, increase in weight, changes in depressed mood, menopausal symptoms, and sexual function 23 .…”