Queer menopause: Expertise, ways of (not) knowing and resisting biomedicalisation

In the current climate of increasing menopause coverage and visibility in the West, there are moral imperatives to know menopause – particularly its symptoms and treatments – and to act accordingly. However, existing knowledge around the menopause is limited and limiting through its reliance on the biomedical model and the assumption of a cisgender, heterosexual, middle-aged woman as the prototypical menopausal woman. This article applies and develops sociological theories around ‘expert’ and lay knowledges, ignorance and biomedicalisation through a queer feminist lens. The need to reimagine menopause is demonstrated throughout this article, which elucidates the importance of centralising marginalised experiences not only to fill a research gap but as a new starting point from which to unflatten menopause and construct a multidimensional, nuanced, bio-psycho-social understanding of menopause. Within this article I explore how 16 LGBTQ+ participants in the UK navigated the knowledge landscape around menopause and were compelled to reimagine menopause knowledge in a way that was useful and affirming for them. Participants often negotiated with biomedical and popular knowledges around menopause but did so critically and selectively. Participants expressed frustration around the limits and constraints of this knowledge, especially around the particularities of LGBTQ+ experiences. Participants worked around these challenges by reimagining menopause by creating, sharing and sourcing their own forms of knowledge. Participants also found the utilisation of creative research methods such as body mapping to be helpful in processing their experiences and reimagining menopause knowledge through a more complex and holistic visual depiction of menopause.