Highlights
- •Menopausal experiences and self-care strategies are influenced by culture of origin.
- •Women are unlikely to start conversations about menopause with healthcare providers.
- •Women want their healthcare providers to provide information about menopause.
- •Insufficient consultation time constrains the provision of health promotion information.
Abstract
This systematic review summarises the available evidence about how migrant women perceive
and manage their menopausal and postmenopausal health and their experiences with healthcare
services; and healthcare providers’ views about delivering menopause-related healthcare
to migrant women. Medline, PsychInfo, Embase and Cinahl were searched for peer-reviewed
papers published in English. Thirty-one papers were identified reporting on 25 studies.
Twenty-three studies reported on investigations examining migrant women's perceptions
about menopause, their self-care strategies and their experiences with menopause-related
healthcare. Only two papers reported on healthcare providers’ views about providing
menopause-related healthcare to migrant women. Most studies with migrant women found
that their experiences of menopause and self-care strategies were culturally informed;
that migrant women are unlikely to seek out menopause-related healthcare or to initiate
conversations about menopause with their healthcare providers; and that most of those
who seek menopause-related healthcare are disappointed with the care they receive.
Studies assessing menopause-related knowledge found that many migrant women have limited
knowledge about menopause and postmenopausal health, and that family and friends are
their most common sources of information about menopause. Although healthcare providers
were aware that migrant women use traditional remedies to manage their menopausal
health and are likely to source menopause-related information from within their communities,
they were reluctant to actively promote menopause-related health information due to
consultation time constraints and lack of confidence in culturally competent communication.
More research with healthcare providers is needed to improve understanding about barriers
and facilitators to provide comprehensive menopause-related care to migrant women.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 29, 2021
Accepted:
May 25,
2021
Received in revised form:
May 18,
2021
Received:
February 28,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
