WOMEN'S MIDLIFE CONFUSION: "WHY AM I FEELING THIS WAY?"

Abstract

Midlife is a multifaceted stage of woman's development, characterized by important transitions. In an ethnographic study of women's midlife experience of their changing bodies, 11 participants voiced their uncertainty and confusion around bodily changes, responses exacerbated by the lack of consistent health-related information in this area. This confusion emerged as one of the major thematic elements of the study. Midlife women's experience of confusion may reflect a much broader problem, the locus of which is not so much in the women themselves, but rather in negative societal attitudes about aging women. This article describes various aspects of confusion that emerged from the data, and offers implications of the research and recommendations for practitioners.