Women in a south Indian fishing village: role identity, continuity, and the experience of menopause.

A study was conducted of the experience of menopause among middle-aged women in a fishing village on the southwest coast of India. These women live in a harsh environment with a standard of living that would be considered economically deprived by an outsider. The women have established their identity as fish sellers. Although they reported experiencing some of the physiological symptoms of menopause typically reported in Western literature, the symptoms were not cause for complaint, and none of them sought medical treatment for them. Nor did these women go through an identity crisis at midlife; they continued to identify themselves as well-established fish sellers, not as redundant, aging housewives. Furthermore, menopause gave them much more time and freedom to pursue their fish-selling business. This paper posits that their continuity in identity accounts for their freedom from the psychological symptoms some Western women experience at midlife.