Unpacking Space, Place, and Labor in Experiences of Menopause

Paper Title

Unpacking Space, Place, and Labor in Experiences of Menopause

Publication Info

• Topic area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and women’s midlife health.
• Keywords: Menopause, space and place, labor, urban Pakistan, women’s health, technology design, feminist geography, care-seeking, patriarchal dynamics, workplace well-being.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Menopause remains underexplored in HCI research, particularly in cultural contexts outside the Global North. Existing studies have not sufficiently examined how the geography of menopause—its experience across intertwined spaces like the home and workplace—shapes implications for technology design.
• Significance: Understanding menopause through the lens of space and place can reveal barriers and opportunities for creating supportive environments, enabling women’s well-being and informed care-seeking.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has focused on menopause in workplaces, online communities, and biomedical care, primarily in the Global North. However, cultural, economic, and social factors significantly shape menopause experiences, which remain underexplored in South Asian contexts. This study builds on feminist geography and labor theories to address these gaps.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A qualitative study of women’s menopause experiences in urban Pakistan, analyzing the role of space, place, and labor in shaping well-being and care-seeking.
• Novelty:
  1. Empirical account of menopause experiences in urban Pakistan, focusing on diverse sites like the body, home, and workplace.
  2. Implications for designing health technologies that support meaningful choice in care-seeking and foster well-being beyond productivity.
  3. Exploration of how patriarchal dynamics and cultural contexts shape menopause experiences and opportunities for intervention.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 women and 5 physicians, supplemented by surveys with 73 women.
  • Used visual prompts to facilitate discussions about menopause across daily routines, physical spaces, tools, and family dynamics.
  • Applied reflexive thematic analysis to identify themes related to space, place, and labor.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • 40.6% of survey respondents reported vasomotor signs like hot flashes; 53.1% reported musculoskeletal pain.
  • Only 20% of respondents used online tools for managing menopause; no participants used dedicated menopause apps.
  • Menopause was often stigmatized or dismissed within families, with 25% of survey respondents uncomfortable discussing it.
  • Physicians noted socioeconomic disparities in care-seeking, with lower-income women delaying care until severe symptoms arose.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Highlights cultural and spatial dimensions of menopause beyond biomedical framings.
  • Identifies gaps in awareness and care-seeking shaped by patriarchal dynamics and uneven access to technology.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Interviews revealed how menopause experiences varied across sites like the home and workplace, shaped by gendered expectations and social relations.
  • Surveys complemented qualitative findings, providing broader insights into signs, care-seeking behaviors, and technology use.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Sample limited to married cis women in urban Pakistan; future studies should include unmarried, divorced, widowed, and trans women.
  • Rural and peri-urban settings, as well as frontline health workers, remain underrepresented.
  • Future work should explore design interventions for diverse work settings, faith-based messaging, and public health campaigns.

Summary

This study examines menopause experiences in urban Pakistan through the lens of space, place, and labor, revealing how intertwined sites like the body, home, and workplace shape well-being and care-seeking. Findings highlight uneven access to care, patriarchal dynamics in the home, and opportunities for social interaction at work. The study proposes design implications for health technologies that support meaningful choice in care-seeking, foster well-being beyond productivity, and engage husbands in learning to support their wives. Future research should expand to diverse populations and settings, exploring culturally sensitive interventions and public health approaches.