Abstract
Background: Menopause can be a time of change for women and may be marked by disturbances in mood. For women living with a mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, little is known about how they experience mood changes during menopause. This study aimed to explore how women with bipolar disorder constructed mood changes during menopause and how this impacted on treatment decisions. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with fifteen women who reported they had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Data was analysed using thematic analysis guided by a social constructionist framework. Results: Themes identified included 'Constructions of mood change: menopause or bipolar disorder?',' Life events, bipolar disorder and menopause coming together'; 'Treatment choices for mood change during menopause'. Conclusions: The accounts suggested that women related to the experience of mood changes during menopause through the lens of their existing framework of bipolar disorder, with implications for understanding of self and treatment choices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 110 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | BMC Women's Health |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Open Access - Access Right Statement
© The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Keywords
- health
- manic-depressive illness
- menopause
- mental health
- women