For the Norwegian context there is no available research on women’s experience with menopause in encounters with healthcare or working life. In Norway, all citizens have a designated general practitioner (GP) being their primary health contact as well as the gatekeeper to specialist health care. GPs thus have a crucial role in health care for all citizens, also for women with menopausal health complaints. Studies find that health complaints during the menopausal transition range from mental health issues, musculoskeletal pain, joint stiffness, sleep deprivation, fatigue, headache, ‘brain fog’, asthma and severe hot flushes impacting women’s quality of life and potential for sustainable work participation. Intervention studies/projects aiming to inform menopausal women about menopausal health issues, found significant improvement in women’s self-reported health, wellbeing and presenteeism after the intervention.
When dealing with menopause, lack of awareness and access to appropriate knowledge is a major challenge in many societies, also Norway. Women empowerment in decisions about their health is therefore of major importance. There is a potential for studies empowering women to manage their own health complaints in relation to work life and workplace and to encounters with the healthcare system, in particular GP’s, for example through informational efforts, support, utilizing available health care resources, and practicing active self-care. The KLAR study will strengthen the knowledge base on how women, health care professionals and organizations/ employers experience and manage menopause and identify hinderances and facilitators for meeting women’s needs in relation to work participation and inclusion.
KLAR will bring novel knowledge to how women’s health in midlife is framed in health and welfare policy and hence also contribute to systemic awareness of how attitudes to women’s health in general, and menopause in particular, are shaped in the public sphere, at workplaces and in health care.
