Better Together: Co-creating and evaluating a partner support intervention for women experiencing menopause

Supervisors:

• Dr Riya Patel [email protected]
• Dr Patrick Highton
• Dr Shavez Jeffers

Project Description:

Menopause is a significant life transition experienced by women and can have profound effects on physical health, mental wellbeing, relationships, work, and quality of life. Although awareness of menopause has increased considerably in recent years, many women continue to report feeling unsupported by those around them, including their partners. Evidence suggests that supportive relationships can play an important role in helping women navigate menopausal symptoms, access appropriate healthcare, maintain wellbeing, and cope with changes affecting everyday life.

Evidence suggests that male partners can play an important role in how women experience and manage menopause. Many men report discussing menopausal symptoms with their partners and perceive themselves to be influential in decisions regarding treatment and lifestyle change. However, awareness of menopause and available treatment options remains limited, and many men lack the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to provide effective support. While educational resources for partners are increasingly available, there is little evidence regarding interventions specifically designed to improve partner support during the menopausal transition.

Consequently, there remains a substantial gap in understanding how best to equip men to support women through menopause and whether such interventions can improve women's health, wellbeing and menopause experiences. This PhD aims to address this gap, through developing and evaluating an intervention aimed at supporting men to better understand menopause and provide effective support to their partners. The PhD builds on work that has been completed by the Centre for Ethnic Health Research.

The current work packages are planned but the team are open to discussion:

Year 1: Qualitative study with men and women to better understand how men can support their partners and how women would like to be supported.

Year 2: Intervention development which includes cultural adaptations for ethnic minority communities.

Year 3: A feasibility and acceptability study of the co-created intervention.

References:

Parry, B. L. (2019). An opportunity to enhance health and well-being in menopausal women: educate their male partners!. Menopause, 26(10), 1090-1092.

Parish, S. J., Faubion, S. S., Weinberg, M., Bernick, B., & Mirkin, S. (2019). The MATE survey: men's perceptions and attitudes towards menopause and their role in partners’ menopausal transition. Menopause (New York, NY), 26(10), 1110.

Thavabalan, K., Ovenell, A., Pierce, P., Sutaria, A., Parkhouse, A., Baydemir, N., & Lally, T. (2025). Barriers to the safe discussion of the experience and management of menopausal symptoms: A systematic literature review. Maturitas, 201, 108683.

Please refer to the application advice below.