A survey by the Women’s Foundation, conducted with MGEN, lifts the veil on menopause. Only one woman out of two has already spoken about it with her partner and 41% of menopausal women reveal having already experienced ironic or mocking comments.
If the transition to menopause is inevitable in the life of a woman, more than 80% of French people talk about it little or not at all. This emerges from a investigation conducted by the Fondation des Femmes, in partnership with the MGEN group, and published on Monday 3 February. This survey, carried out online in November 2019, covered a sample of 1,505 people aged 18 and over, 53% of whom are menopausal or pre-menopausal women.
[INFOGRAPHIE] The French and the #Menopause (1/2) https://t.co/LPlNSD0wPN pic.twitter.com/6pVib7LV4w
— MGEN Group (@mgen_group) February 3, 2020
Menopause, a difficult passage
For the women concerned, menopause is above all a health constraint: hot flashes (84%), weight gain (63%), old age (36%), loss of libido (36%), feeling depressed (33%). %). Nearly one in six postmenopausal or pre-menopausal women say they find it hard to experience this change and 44% of them even mention a negative influence on their daily lives. Nearly two out of three postmenopausal women see as many advantages as disadvantages. The first advantage put forward is the end of the constraints and pain associated with menstruation.
Menopause is a subject that is difficult to discuss: 39% of French people say they do not talk about it at all and only one out of two women in a couple has already mentioned the subject with their partner. Forty percent of women consider the subject painful and even avoid thinking about it, while symptoms that are difficult to identify (27%), the absence of an obvious interlocutor (23%) and of information (18%) constitute the other societal taboo factors.
A taboo topic
As a result, menopause is an unknown subject, while 4 out of 10 women say they are worried at this time. Slightly less than one out of two women affected by the menopause (42%) admits that they do not know the difference between pre-menopause and menopause. Only one out of two French people believe they are sufficiently informed on this subject, but it is only when menopause or pre-menopause occurs that the level of information increases among women: 40% of those under 40 say feel informed, compared to 84% of postmenopausal women.
This ignorance leads to a societal taboo. In fact, nearly one in five pre-menopausal women has already concealed the effects linked to her condition, whether in her private life or in the professional context (13%). Among those who have taken the plunge, they are 41% to declare having already suffered ironic or mocking comments. Only 12% of women in the pre-menopausal period would be ready to talk to their superior if they felt any problems related to this change.
Several recent studies have highlighted factors that delay the onset of menopause, a sign of longer life expectancy. Thus, favoring a diet rich in fatty fish and fresh legumes or having regular sexual activity would delay the onset of menopause.
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