Speaking of cultural competency....I never knew that black women experienced menopause different than white women. Blacks have more vasomoter symptoms and were more severe. These included fatigue, headaches, cramps, night sweats, and depression.
Interestingly, these symtpoms where seen as ok and they used their own inner power to cope with them. They described using faith, accepting, forgivness. This process was seen as a natural aging process.
I would have never thought there was a difference had I not ran across this research:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20629930
I don't know that I agree with the author's conclusions. They state, "Health care providers need to develop a mechanism to deliver the necessary knowledge about menopausal symptoms and management strategies to Black midlife women in their health care practices". To me this sounded like we're are saying..these poor black women, they don't know what they are missing...let's enlighten them. No...I think they could probably do a lot of enlighten us. Not that we shouldn't also provide knowledge that they may desire, but I think we also need to acknowledge that just because the way the deal with menopause is different, does not make it worthless and in need of change.
Interestingly, these symtpoms where seen as ok and they used their own inner power to cope with them. They described using faith, accepting, forgivness. This process was seen as a natural aging process.
I would have never thought there was a difference had I not ran across this research:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20629930
I don't know that I agree with the author's conclusions. They state, "Health care providers need to develop a mechanism to deliver the necessary knowledge about menopausal symptoms and management strategies to Black midlife women in their health care practices". To me this sounded like we're are saying..these poor black women, they don't know what they are missing...let's enlighten them. No...I think they could probably do a lot of enlighten us. Not that we shouldn't also provide knowledge that they may desire, but I think we also need to acknowledge that just because the way the deal with menopause is different, does not make it worthless and in need of change.
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