The role of the menopause in women's experiences of the 'change of life'
The role of the menopause in women's experiences of the 'change of life'
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DOI：
10.1111/1467-9566.00258
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发表时间：
2001-07-01
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Wadsworth, MEJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ballard, KD;Kuh, DJ;Wadsworth, MEJ
在整个世纪的过程中，更年期在医学界被视为一种激素缺乏状态。这种将更年期作为生理和生化变化的提法，虽然在某些方面是适当的，但低估了更年期所经历的社会背景的重要性。根据一项全国性纵向调查的评论部分所描述的妇女对更年期的描述，本文将更年期过渡的经历描述为一种地位的过渡（Glaser和Strauss 1971），其中妇女经历一系列五个阶段：（1）症状的预期;（2）症状和失控的经验;（3）更年期的确认;（4）恢复控制和（5）月经自由。女性在这段时间所经历的社会变化被认为是平行的地位通道，经常与更年期过渡争夺注意力。这些妇女自由发表的意见强调了改变与伴侣、子女和父母的社会关系以及工作中的变化的重要性。我们表明，虽然妇女认为更年期是一个医疗事件，他们自己重视的社会背景下，更年期的经验。因此，我们认为，主要奠定长期，“生活的变化”，是适当的捕捉生物和社会的变化，发生在中年，其中更年期只是一部分的多样性。
Over the course of the 20th century, the menopause came to be viewed amongst the medical profession as a hormone deficiency state. This formulation of the menopause as a physiological and biochemical change, whilst in some ways appropriate, understates the importance of the social context in which the menopause is experienced. Drawing on women's accounts of the menopause, as described in the comments section of a longitudinal national survey, this paper describes the experience of the menopause transition as a status passage (Glaser and Strauss 1971), where women move through a series of five stages: (1) expectation of symptoms; (2) experience of symptoms and loss of control; (3) confirmation of the menopause; (4) regaining control and (5) freedom from menstruation. The social changes experienced by women during this time are then considered as parallel status passages, often competing for attention with the menopause transition. These free comments made by women emphasise the importance of changing social relationships with partners, children and parents, and changes at work. We show that, whilst women conceive the menopause to be a medical event, they themselves place importance on the social context in which the menopause is experienced. We argue therefore that the predominantly lay term, the 'change of life', is appropriate to capture the multiplicity of biological and social changes that occur during midlife, of which menopause is only one part.