Menopause and healthcare professional education: A scoping review

Abstract

Objectives: There has been a growing discourse regarding menopause, but despite this growth there is little education on this important topic across health professions. This scoping review provides a comprehensive synthesis of how menopause is represented in health professions' education literature, to inform future pedagogy and practice.

Design: A scoping review using the framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley (2005).

Methods: In the scoping review, only empirical studies were considered and only those published in the English language were included. Four databases were interrogated using a variety of search terms, including menopause, healthcare, medical and education.

Results: Twelve studies were included and mapped independently by the authors onto the internally developed data-extraction tool. Insights into how menopause is understood in educational terms and how it is taught within health professions' education were gained, specifically in relation to knowledge, language used, and learning and educational gaps.

Conclusion: The review establishes how menopause is understood in educational terms and how it is taught within health professions' education, and develops an understanding of the pedagogy of menopause. There is an urgent need for menopause to be included in mainstream curricula and for an appropriate pedagogy that acknowledges the complexity of the topic, to achieve excellence in education across health professions' education. There is a broader perspective in addressing the challenges for health professions' education in terms of the prioritisation and pedagogy of women's health.

Keywords: Education; Health professions; Medicine; Menopause.