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Johanna Esseveld

Professor emerita

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Keeping my ways of being: Middle-aged women dealing with the passage through menopause

Author

  • Helene Ekström
  • Johanna Esseveld
  • Birgitta Hovelius

Summary, in English

The meanings given to menopause by women themselves are often left aside. In this grounded theory study, based on interviews and on open-ended questions in questionnaires answered by middle-aged women, the authors found that not being able to know what would happen and what influence menopause would have on them as individuals were sources of uncertainty. A theory of a general pattern of behaviour emerged, Keeping my ways of being, resolving the uncertainties involved. The intensity of the process and the use of its three different stages, those of Preserving present ways of being, Limiting changes and Reappraising, were considered to be dependent upon the central Personal calculation process, in which the women used their individual explanatory beliefs and evaluations of need. The theory used as a model of thinking in consultations with middle-aged women might show a high degree of workability in explaining what is going on.

Department/s

  • Medicine, Lund
  • Sociology

Publishing year

2005

Language

English

Pages

21-53

Publication/Series

The Grounded Theory Review

Volume

5

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Sociology Press

Topic

  • Other Clinical Medicine

Status

Published

Project

  • Gendered Identeties and Middle-Aged Bodies

Research group

  • Critical Perspectives in Sociology / Kritiska Studier i Sociologi

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1556-1542