Abstract
The present study was conducted to determine the perceptions of middle-aged women of reproductive changes. The present study was a qualitative research with a content analysis approach. The participants were 30 middle-aged women whose perceptions of reproductive changes had been collected on in-depth semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using the Graneheim and Lundman’s inductive content analysis method. The main themes extracted from the data were a sense of “fall” and “the beginning of a new life cycle.” A feeling of fall was formed from the subthemes “deterioration of youth,” “the dusk of femininity,” and “fade-out of the gender roles.” The theme “beginning of a new life cycle” was formed from the subthemes of “acceptance,” “sophistication,” and “maturity.” Middle-aged women had a wide range of emotions experienced from the reproductive changes ranging from a feeling of decline to that of excellence and rise.
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This study was supported by Isfahan university of Medical Sciences (Grant number: 394834).
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This study was funded by Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (Grant number 394834).
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The present qualitative study is a report on part of the larger mixed-method research approved by the Ethics Committee at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the ethics committee of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.
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Reyhani, M., Kazemi, A. & Keshvari, M. Rise and fall: two sides of a coin of middle aged women’s perceptions of reproductive: a qualitative study. Arch Womens Ment Health 21, 421–428 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0815-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0815-4