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Exploring Australian Aboriginal Women’s experiences of menopause: a descriptive study

BACKGROUND: Despite extensive literature demonstrating differing experiences in menopause around the world, documentation of the experience of menopause in Australian Aboriginal women is scarce, and thus their menopausal experience is relatively unknown. This study aimed to understand Australian Abo...

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Autores principales: Jurgenson, Janelle R, Jones, Emma K, Haynes, Emma, Green, Charmaine, Thompson, Sandra C
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3994473/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24646300
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6874-14-47
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author Jurgenson, Janelle R
Jones, Emma K
Haynes, Emma
Green, Charmaine
Thompson, Sandra C
author_facet Jurgenson, Janelle R
Jones, Emma K
Haynes, Emma
Green, Charmaine
Thompson, Sandra C
author_sort Jurgenson, Janelle R
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Despite extensive literature demonstrating differing experiences in menopause around the world, documentation of the experience of menopause in Australian Aboriginal women is scarce, and thus their menopausal experience is relatively unknown. This study aimed to understand Australian Aboriginal women’s understanding and experience of menopause and its impact on their lives. METHODS: The study was an exploratory qualitative study. Twenty-five Aboriginal women were recruited from a regional centre in the Mid-West region of Western Australia using opportunistic and snowballing sampling. Interviews and focus group discussions were undertaken from February 2011 to February 2012 using open-ended questioning with a yarning technique. Thematic analysis was undertaken of the transcribed interviews. RESULTS: A number of themes were revealed. These related to the language used, meanings and attitudes to menopause, symptoms experienced, the role of men, a lack of understanding, coping mechanisms and the attribution of menopausal changes to something else. The term “change of life” was more widely recognised and signified the process of ageing, and an associated gain of respect in the local community. A fear of menopausal symptoms or uncertainty about their origin was also common. Overall, many women reported insufficient understanding and a lack of available information to assist them and their family to understand the transition. CONCLUSION: There are similarities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal experiences of menopause, including similar symptom profiles. The current language used within mainstream health settings may not be appropriate to this population if it fails to recognise the importance of language and reflect the attributed meaning of menopause. The fear of symptoms and uncertainty of their relationship to menopause demonstrated a need for more information which has not adequately been supplied to Australian Aboriginal women through current services. While this study is with a select population of Aboriginal Australian women, it reveals the importance of acknowledging differences, particularly in use of language to convey ideas and support Aboriginal women experiencing menopause.
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spelling pubmed-39944732014-04-23 Exploring Australian Aboriginal Women’s experiences of menopause: a descriptive study Jurgenson, Janelle R Jones, Emma K Haynes, Emma Green, Charmaine Thompson, Sandra C BMC Womens Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Despite extensive literature demonstrating differing experiences in menopause around the world, documentation of the experience of menopause in Australian Aboriginal women is scarce, and thus their menopausal experience is relatively unknown. This study aimed to understand Australian Aboriginal women’s understanding and experience of menopause and its impact on their lives. METHODS: The study was an exploratory qualitative study. Twenty-five Aboriginal women were recruited from a regional centre in the Mid-West region of Western Australia using opportunistic and snowballing sampling. Interviews and focus group discussions were undertaken from February 2011 to February 2012 using open-ended questioning with a yarning technique. Thematic analysis was undertaken of the transcribed interviews. RESULTS: A number of themes were revealed. These related to the language used, meanings and attitudes to menopause, symptoms experienced, the role of men, a lack of understanding, coping mechanisms and the attribution of menopausal changes to something else. The term “change of life” was more widely recognised and signified the process of ageing, and an associated gain of respect in the local community. A fear of menopausal symptoms or uncertainty about their origin was also common. Overall, many women reported insufficient understanding and a lack of available information to assist them and their family to understand the transition. CONCLUSION: There are similarities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal experiences of menopause, including similar symptom profiles. The current language used within mainstream health settings may not be appropriate to this population if it fails to recognise the importance of language and reflect the attributed meaning of menopause. The fear of symptoms and uncertainty of their relationship to menopause demonstrated a need for more information which has not adequately been supplied to Australian Aboriginal women through current services. While this study is with a select population of Aboriginal Australian women, it reveals the importance of acknowledging differences, particularly in use of language to convey ideas and support Aboriginal women experiencing menopause. BioMed Central 2014-03-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3994473/ /pubmed/24646300 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6874-14-47 Text en Copyright © 2014 Jurgenson et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jurgenson, Janelle R
Jones, Emma K
Haynes, Emma
Green, Charmaine
Thompson, Sandra C
Exploring Australian Aboriginal Women’s experiences of menopause: a descriptive study
title Exploring Australian Aboriginal Women’s experiences of menopause: a descriptive study
title_full Exploring Australian Aboriginal Women’s experiences of menopause: a descriptive study
title_fullStr Exploring Australian Aboriginal Women’s experiences of menopause: a descriptive study
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Australian Aboriginal Women’s experiences of menopause: a descriptive study
title_short Exploring Australian Aboriginal Women’s experiences of menopause: a descriptive study
title_sort exploring australian aboriginal women’s experiences of menopause: a descriptive study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3994473/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24646300
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6874-14-47
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