An Empowerment Model of Iranian Women for the Management of Menopause: A Grounded Theory Study Publisher Pubmed



Yazdkhasti M¹ ; Negarandeh R² ; Behboodi Moghadam Z³ Show Affiliations
Source: International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being Published:2019

Abstract

Background and Objectives: There is still no clear portrayal of women's empowerment in managing menopause. The present study was conducted to design a model for the empowerment of Iranian women in managing menopause. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using the grounded theory on  40-60-year-old women who were first selected through purposive sampling and then by theoretical sampling from November 2013 to July 2016. Data were collected using 33 in-depth, semi-structured, individual interviews with 30 participants. Data were analyzed using the Strauss and Corbin(2008) approach and organized in MAXQDA-10. Results: The analysis of the data led to the emergence of active coping with menopause as the core variable with four themes. The two themes threat to feminine identity and latent opportunity explained the context of the study, and redefining the feminine identity and self-retrieval explained its process. Conclusion: In our social context, the phenomenon of menopause is a coin with two sides and its experience leans more on the threat to feminine identity and less on latent opportunity. The model of postmenopausal women’s empowerment for managing menopause might offer health policy-makers a realistic and divergent understanding of the challenges of empowering women by explaining key concepts. © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.