Journal of North Khorasan

Background & Objectives:Menopause is a natural period of women’s life that will be experienced   soon or late. Spending this period properly is directly associated with the improving quality of life.

Materials  &  Methods: The qualitative research has been accomplished by phenomenological method using the Colazzi approach about women’s menopausal experiences. Thirty-six women at the age of over 40 who were referred to the health centers in Mashhad were enrolled in present study by target based sampling. This   selection has been accomplished by the focused group discussion method to get results until saturation. Interviews details were recorded by the interviewer’s permission and immediately carried out after a few sessions by thematic analysis, according to the seven phases Colaizzi  method.

Results: Participants had two main ideas including satisfaction and un satisfaction about the menopause. The main thematic results were as follow:  Menopause as a compulsory component of life, need of support, spirituality, education, effective compatibility, and self-efficiency. Moreover, supporting by husband and children is the most effective factor in strengthening their self- efficiency. They believed that knowledge promotion reduced morbidity and improved the quality of life and self- efficacy.

Conclusion: Important aspect in the lives of women is effective adaptation with menopause as an inevitable process of life.  Applying real support resources to protect and promote self-efficacy and awareness are effective to adapt them to this stage of life. These findings could be a new approach to health care practitioners to understand more realistic needs of women in this stage of life and could   provide their real problems

Keyword: menopause, attitude, self-efficacy