Living in Uncertain Times: Experiences of Menopause and Reproductive Aging

Abstract

This chapter explores the everyday experiences of women living in and passing through the stages of perimenopause and menopause, a transition that brings both physical change and identity change. Dillaway approaches this subject by examining the myriad uncertainties that women face during this transition, attributing many of them to confusion around the definitions of perimenopause and menopause; ambiguous signs and symptoms; conflicted feelings about ageing; and reflections on both previous and current motherhood and family experiences. Women think about and navigate these uncertainties in varied ways, Dillaway says, and she concludes that part of the everyday experience of this reproductive- and life-course transition is learning to live in and with uncertainty.