Let’s Talk Menopause: Promoting Intergenerational Dialogue about Menopause through Design

Menopause is an important life transition characterised by physiological, emotional, and social changes. It is surrounded by stigma and taboo. Thus, conversations about menopause are often rare, even among family members, and people often don’t know what to expect from menopause. We leverage design and collaborative making to promote (intergenerational) communication about menopause, between mothers and daughters, and between members of a broader audience. We describe a collaborative Research through Design process where we collaborated with six mother-daughter dyads to create material representations capturing and describing their diverse menopause experiences. Iterating on these representations, we designed and exhibited 5 interactive artifacts at Dutch Design Week 2024. We contribute with empirical findings on plural experiences around menopause, present the five artifacts built upon these experiences, and discuss the importance of pluralizing narratives around menopause through design.