Experience of Users at a Chilean Primary Care Center Menopause and Social Representations

Abstract

Introduction: Life expectancy of women is increasing. If the average age of menopause onset is considered to be 49 years, it is possible for women to live a third of their life in post menopause. Although menopause is a biological fact, it is associated with a socio-cultural event such as aging, which strongly influences the way women approach this period and in their personal development project during this stage of lifetime.
Objective: Describe the connection between social representations related to menopause and the experience of a group of Chilean women about their own process of menopause.
Methodology: Qualitative research was conducted using content analysis according to Krippendorf, data was obtained from depth interviews.
Findings: It is observed that the menopause for the participanting women was a lived experience as a polarity, which is related to the coexistence of opposing emotions and meanings linked to the end of menstruation and the interpretation they make of the symptomatology associated with menopause.
Conclusion: Women feel that menopause is a normal stage; however, they consider "this normality" as a painful and suffering process that may be charged by cultural beliefs and social representations about menopause transmitted by generations in Chile.