Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Feb;33(2):113-131.
doi: 10.1089/jwh.2023.0276. Epub 2023 Dec 11.

Key Findings from Mental Health Research During the Menopause Transition for Racially and Ethnically Minoritized Women Living in the United States: A Scoping Review

Tamara Lewis Johnson  1 , Laura M Rowland  2 , Mahela S Ashraf  3 , Crystal T Clark  4 , Vonetta M Dotson  5 , Alicia A Livinski  6 , Melissa Simon  7
Affiliations

Key Findings from Mental Health Research During the Menopause Transition for Racially and Ethnically Minoritized Women Living in the United States: A Scoping Review

Tamara Lewis Johnson et al. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2024 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) women experience social and structural factors that may affect their response to mental health treatment and menopausal symptoms during the menopause transition (MT). This scoping review on mental health during the MT for REM women in the United States was conducted to characterize factors associated with mental health challenges. Materials and Methods: Five databases were searched. Articles were included if focused on MT in REM women in the United States and its territories with specific mental illnesses and published in English from 2005 to 2021. Titles and abstracts and full text were screened. Screening and data collection were completed in duplicate by two reviewers in Covidence. Results: Sixty-five articles were included and indicate that REM women experience a disproportionate burden of depressive symptoms during the MT. Less evidence is reported about anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, psychosis, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses. The risk factors associated with mental illness during MT are social, structural, and biological. Treatment response to therapeutic interventions is often underpowered to explain REM differences. Conclusion: Depression during the MT is associated with negative outcomes that may impact REM women differentially. Incorporating theoretical frameworks (e.g., intersectionality, weathering) into mental health research will reduce the likelihood that scientists mislabel race as the cause of these inequities, when racism and intersecting systems of oppression are the root causes of differential expression of mental illness among REM women during the MT. There is a need for interdisciplinary research to advance the mental health of REM women.

Keywords: ethnicity; menopause transition; mental health; perimenopause; race; women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

V.M.D. is owner of CerebroFit Integrated Brain Health. C.T.C. provides consultation services for Seven Starling and SixSense.

No other competing financial interests exist.

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
PRISMA Flow Diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bailey ZD, Krieger N, Agénor M, et al. . Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: Evidence and interventions. Lancet 2017;389(10077):1453–1463; doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(17)30569-x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Williams DR, Lawrence JA, Davis BA, et al. . Understanding how discrimination can affect health. Health Serv Res 2019;54 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):1374–1388; doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13222 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Letang SK, Lin SS, Parmelee PA, et al. . Ethnoracial disparities in cognition are associated with multiple socioeconomic status-stress pathways. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2021;6(1):64; doi: 10.1186/s41235-021-00329-7 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sherman S. Defining the menopause transition. Am J Med 2005;118(12B):3S–7S; doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2005.11.002 - DOI - PubMed
    1. OlaOlorun FM, Shen W. Menopause. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Global Public Health. Oxford University Press: 2020. Available from: https://oxfordre.com/publichealth/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190632366.00... [Last accessed: July 31, 2023].

Publication types