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. 2023 Aug 30;23(1):460.
doi: 10.1186/s12905-023-02424-x.

Women's knowledge and attitudes to the menopause: a comparison of women over 40 who were in the perimenopause, post menopause and those not in the peri or post menopause

Bisma Tariq  1 , Samantha Phillips  1 , Rina Biswakarma  2 , Vikram Talaulikar  3 , Joyce C Harper  4
Affiliations

Women's knowledge and attitudes to the menopause: a comparison of women over 40 who were in the perimenopause, post menopause and those not in the peri or post menopause

Bisma Tariq et al. BMC Womens Health. .

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate women's knowledge and attitudes towards the menopause by comparing three groups of women: perimenopause, post menopause and those women not in either the peri or post menopause (other).

Methods: A 35 question online survey was advertised on social media to evaluate women's attitudes and knowledge of the menopause. Three groups of women were compared: perimenopause, post menopause and those women not in either the peri or post menopause (other).

Results: Most women were completely uninformed or only had some knowledge of the menopause before the age of 40. Most women thought that the menopause should be taught at school, but over 80% had received no menopause education at school themselves. The most popular sources of menopause information were independent websites and friends. Perimenopausal women were significantly more likely than postmenopausal women to use online resources for menopause information. The perimenopausal and postmenopausal groups had more positive attitudes towards the menopause than the other group. 57.5% of postmenopausal women found the menopause difficult or very difficult. Most women were happy about no longer menstruating, although some expressed sadness regarding fertility loss.

Conclusions: Most women had limited knowledge and negative attitudes towards the menopause, leaving them unprepared to cope with the physical and psychological changes associated with this stage of life. Improved menopause education is required to improve quality of life during the menopausal transition and a most positive narrative of life postmenopause.

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Conflict of interest statement

Joyce Harper is author of Your Fertile Years and founder of Reproductive Health at Work. She is regularly paid to give lectures on the menopause. None of the other authors have competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
- How informed respondents felt about the perimenopause/menopause before the age of 40
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
- Age at which respondents had started to think about the perimenopause/menopause
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
- When respondents thought the menopause should be taught
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
- How respondents were taught about the menopause at school
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
- Ways in which respondents had specifically looked for menopause information
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
– Respondents were asked if they had spoken with a health professional about the menopause
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
- Methods used to alleviate perimenopausal/menopausal symptoms
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
- Feelings towards the perimenopause/menopause
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
- Feelings of post menopause group towards the menopause
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
- Feelings about no longer having periods
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Munn C, Vaughan L, Talaulikar V, Davies MC, Harper JC. Menopause knowledge and education in women under 40: results from an online survey. Women’s Health. 2022;18. 10.1177/17455057221139660. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Harper JC, Phillips S, Biswakarma R, Yasmin E, Radhakrishnan S, Saridogan E, Davies M, Talaulikar V. Perimenopause – a thematic analysis of education and knowledge and its effect on women’s lived experience. To be published in SAGE Women’s Health [Preprint]; 2022.
    1. Aljumah R, Phillips S, Talaukikar V, Harper JC. (2022) An online survey of postmenopausal women to determine their attitudes and knowledge of the menopause. Submitted - PMC - PubMed

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