Postmenopausal Experiences and Constraints in Seeking Health Care in A Rural Area of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Introduction: During menopause, women experience various psychological or physical changes which need adequate attention. Moreover, women don’t seek help for these problems due to their hesitancy, lack of awareness, socio-cultural, financial constraints or as they feel this is a natural-phenomenon. The study aims to explore the postmenopausal experiences faced by women during menopause and to elicit the constraints faced by them in seeking health-care services. Methodology: This was a qualitative study with phenomenological approach conducted among post-menopausal women (≥45 years) from Oct 2022-Jan 2023 with the help of In-Depth-Interview guide in four villages of Bhatar Block, Purba-Bardhaman District. Considering the availability of the study participants, they were selected purposively from the list prepared by ASHA of each village and recruitment done till the point of data-saturation. Inductive thematic-analysis was used to identify codes and themes. Results: During menopause, women experienced physical and psychological changes in the body, changes in social life and for these changes they had to adjust to cope-up. They felt various needs like empathy from husbands, children, peers. On the other hand, they did not seek help from health-care services due to their knowledge gap, dissatisfaction from previous-visit, cost-issue and unavailability of resources in health-care delivery system. Conclusion: Majority of the post-menopausal women faced various problems associated with menopause, but very few had sought help. So, health care providers have an important role to generate awareness among post-menopausal women regarding physical and mental changes during this phase.