title: Aging women's journey toward wholeness: new visions and directions.
abstract: Through a postmodern/feminist exploration of postmenopausal women's narratives, set against a backdrop of a discourse analysis of pivotal biomedical texts, we revealed women's menopausal and postmenopausal aging life-cycle journey as a dynamic, positive, empowering women's process. Based on my analysis of themes in women's narratives I argue that the phenomenon of menopause is limited by a reductionist model and that a wholisitic model is more appropriate for women as they negotiate this significant aging life-cycle process to postmenopausal status. Finally, directions for supporting women to develop a wholistic approach to positive adult development, and how the aging woman can be given status, are suggested.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing and Health Care Practices, Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, School of Health and Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. margharry1@yahoo.com.au
authors.forename: Margaret T C
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000208:ethnology / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D019513:Feminism; D006293:Health Promotion; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006694:Holistic Health; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D016294:Models, Nursing; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D017698:Postmenopause / Q000208:ethnology / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D033302:Postmodernism; D011603:Psychophysiology; D012660:Semantics; D012944:Social Support; D012945:Social Values; D016387:Women's Health / Q000208:ethnology