Nurse‐Researches Respond to the Medicalization of Menopause

Although menopause is clearly a natural biological phenomenon, the view held by many medical researchers and practitioners is that menopause is a disease. This medicalization is a social construct that has been adapted and changed over the years. In fact, medical research has come full circle-back to a view of menopause that was popular in the 19th century. This view is that menopause is the cause of disease. By conceptualizing menopause this way, medical researchers are in search of an intervention-hormonal or otherwise-to prevent or cure a health problem. This orientation influences both the research questions asked and the methodologies utilized. A growing number of nurses are aware of the medicalization of menopause and are demonstrating their skepticism as they design and implement research. By taking the humble stance that very little is scientifically known about how menopause is experienced in large nonclinical populations, these nurse-researchers commonly ask questions such as: What is a healthy mid-life woman's physiology like? Does it change at menopause? If so, what happens? How do various kinds of women experience this universal transition? How do these women react to menopause? What, if any, steps do they take to adapt? This approach puts the menopausal woman in the center of the research design instead of the concept of menopause as a disease.