{"id":54135,"date":"2026-06-15T13:23:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T17:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=54135"},"modified":"2026-06-15T15:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:14:34","slug":"talking-about-menopause","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/talking-about-menopause\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking About Menopause"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Talking About Menopause\n <\/h1>\n \n \n\n

Drawing on the experiences of 60 women, Carleton researchers examine one of life’s most common and least discussed transitions<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, Dr. Anne Bowker<\/a> can now identify dozens of symptoms she experienced without ever realizing they were part of menopause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insomnia, brain fog, emotional shifts that seemed to arrive without explanation. Like so many other women, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Carleton University largely navigated the experience privately, and without much guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the beginning of the pandemic, I was reading Jen Gunter\u2019s book on menopause<\/a>,\u201d recalls Bowker, who is also a professor in the Department of Psychology at Carleton. \u201cI was fairly recently post-menopausal by that time, and I don\u2019t think I had ever really talked about menopause with anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she read, she recognized many parts of her own experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll these symptoms that I\u2019d been through \u2014 difficulties sleeping, changes in my period, emotional issues \u2014 were actually symptoms of peri-menopause,\u201d she said. \u201cMy doctor never said anything to me when I complained about sleeping problems. She could have said or understood that this was part of peri-menopause, along with hot flashes and brain fog and about 40 other potential symptoms. But she didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A developmental psychologist whose research has long explored life transitions, relationships, and well-being, Bowker was already interested in the ways people navigate major periods of change. Menopause, she realized, was one of the most significant and least discussed transitions many people experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bowker\u2019s revelation was the eventual starting point for We Need to Talk About Menopause: Real Stories from Women\u2019s Lived Experiences<\/em><\/a>, a new interdisciplinary book co-authored by Bowker, Carleton psychology professor Dr. Janet Mantler<\/a>, anthropologists Chizorom Ogbuagu and Dr. Emma Bider, and published by Routledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 60 women between the ages of 45 and 61, the book explores menopause not just as a medical occurrence, but as a social, emotional, relational, and professional experience. The stories collected throughout the project reveal how profoundly and diversely menopause can shape someone\u2019s life, while also drawing attention to how rarely those experiences are discussed openly.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cSo many women had never talked with anyone about menopause before our study,\u201d explains Bowker. \u201cThat was really striking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Through their interviews, the authors quickly came to comprehend just how impactful menopause can be \u2013 affecting their relationships, their confidence, their work lives, and their understanding of aging.  The research team set out to examine the broader social expectations surrounding women\u2019s bodies and midlife, and to see who women spoke to, if anyone, about this difficult transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven the strongest women can be defeated, at least temporarily, by how society views aging and what the \u2018ideal image\u2019 of a woman is supposed to be,\u201d Bowker said. \u201cWe met some really strong women who had close friend groups and talked openly about menopause. And then there were other women who had little social support, who had never talked with anyone about menopause before our study, who really struggled.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Anne
Co-authors Anne Bowker (left) and Janet Mantler (right) are professors in Carleton’s Department of Psychology.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Mantler, whose research focuses on work, stress, and organizational well-being, the interviews revealed the cost of that silence, with many women enduring years of disruptive symptoms largely on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first thing that really caught my attention was how little some of the women had spoken to anyone about their menopause journey,\u201d she said. \u201cThis was something affecting their lives every day, sometimes for up to a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, women described experiences that were physically and emotionally overwhelming but still minimized their own distress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey would tell these horror stories,\u201d Mantler explains, \u201cfor example, talking about how a period made their home look like a crime scene but then would say it wasn\u2019t so bad because other people had it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cNot talking about such an important part of one\u2019s life can be isolating. They didn\u2019t know if what they were experiencing was normal or what else to expect.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This reluctance to speak openly extended into workplaces and medical settings alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWomen didn\u2019t talk to men, including supervisors, at work about menopause because they knew the men would be uncomfortable with the topic,\u201d Mantler said. \u201cAnd too many women weren\u2019t talking with their doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers argue that this often-devastating silence is deeply cultural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think another reason is that we, as a society, historically, don\u2019t like talking about women\u2019s \u2018issues,\u2019\u201d says Bowker.  \u201cWe\u2019re more comfortable with Viagra commercials than tampon commercials. We don\u2019t like talking about menstrual blood or periods; you\u2019re supposed to try and act like \u2018nothing is happening.\u2019 Menopause is like talking about periods, but even more \u2018icky.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet despite that long-standing discomfort, conversations about menopause have become increasingly visible in recent years. Social media, celebrity discussions, podcasts, books, and even some workplace conversations have pushed the topic into mainstream culture in ways that would have been almost unimaginable a generation ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Bowker says increased visibility has not necessarily translated into better support or clearer knowledge-sharing. \u201cThere is more info about menopause now,\u201d she says. \u201cBut there\u2019s also lots of misinformation and social media that focuses on how to lose weight during menopause, which isn\u2019t particularly empowering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Drawing on in-depth interviews with 60 women between the ages of 45 and 61, We Need to Talk About Menopause explores menopause not just as a medical occurrence, but as a social, emotional, relational, and professional experience.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Part of what distinguishes We Need to Talk About Menopause<\/em> is its refusal to reduce menopause to a checklist of symptoms or clinical interventions. The book blends psychology, anthropology, qualitative research, and lived experience to create something more conversational, personal, and reflective of the complexity of women’s experiences.  \u201cIt\u2019s not a self-help book,\u201d Bowker says, \u201cbut it does present many different experiences with menopause, from virtually no symptoms or issues, to radically changing your life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complexity of the stories participants shared also shaped the research process itself. Bowker and Mantler, both psychologists with backgrounds in more traditional quantitative methods, found themselves working closely with Ogbuagu and Bider, whose training in anthropology brought different perspectives and approaches to understanding the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes it was a bit challenging, to think about things from a different perspective,\u201d Bowker says, \u201cbut ultimately really rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was one of the underlying apprehensions of the project \u2013 that often human experiences are too complicated, too emotional, too socially embedded to be fully understood through statistics or clinical measurement alone. Mantler concurs: \u201cWorking with an interdisciplinary team is the dream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were able to talk about the same menopause topic or idea and see how other disciplines approach it. Many of our meetings sounded like we were just chatting, but it was through these casual conversations that we were alerted to alternative ways of viewing the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dialogues that emerged through the project ultimately changed the researchers, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely made me more of a feminist,\u201d Bowker states. \u201cI think we (the authors) share pretty strong opinions now on women\u2019s experiences with the medical field and how they should be so much better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cMenopause is messy. It\u2019s totally idiosyncratic and not something you can adequately capture with a questionnaire or a blood test.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For the authors, one of the book’s most important messages is that there is no “right” way to experience menopause.  It looks different for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I really hope,\u201d Mantler said, \u201cis that readers understand the vast range of experiences people have during the menopausal transition and that it is normal to feel the way they do\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, she suggests that this may be the project\u2019s simplest and most important conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to talk about menopause with our partners, our children, our families, our supervisors, our colleagues, and our doctors,\u201d she says. \u201cI hope we give people some language to begin those conversations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carleton University will host a public launch<\/a> for We Need to Talk About Menopause: Real Stories from Women\u2019s Lived Experiences<\/em> on Monday, June 22 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre. The evening will feature a conversation with the book\u2019s four authors, an audience discussion period, and a reception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can purchase We Need to Talk About Menopause: Real Stories from Women\u2019s Lived Experiences<\/em> through the Routledge website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looking back, Dr. Anne Bowker can now identify dozens of symptoms she experienced without ever realizing they were part of menopause. Insomnia, brain fog, emotional shifts that seemed to arrive without explanation. Like so many other women, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Carleton University largely navigated the experience privately, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":54136,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-54135","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/54135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/54135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54142,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/54135\/revisions\/54142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=54135"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=54135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}