A feminist poststructuralist analysis of the knowledge of menopause

The aim of this research innovation was to foster an understanding of women's experiences with menopause by exploring the interrelation between the knowledge in the scientific/medical discourses, both past and present, and the knowledge in the everyday discourses of a select sample of midlife women regarding the closure of menstrual life. The significance of this study is that it provides a social, historical, and cultural horizon from which to begin to understand the experiences of menopause. By developing an alternative knowledge of menopause, this research challenges the prevailing discourses of menopause, resists the way these discourses have solidified into what is accepted as truth, and makes visible the links among values, assumptions, research, and knowledge.