Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Menopause is rarely addressed beyond reproduction. Drawing on narratives of Indigenous Bhil women in Maharashtra, this study explores ageing, cultural silence, and unmet policy needs, showing how women’s health becomes marginal once fertility ends.

Paper long abstract

Menopause marks a significant transition in women’s lives, yet remains largely invisible within health systems that prioritize reproduction over ageing. The present qualitative study among indigenous Bhil women in Maharashtra, India, examines how menopause is experienced, interpreted, and managed in contexts shaped by social marginalization, limited healthcare access, and cultural silence.

The in-depth interviews (n=42) with premenopausal and postmenopausal Bhil women, explores local understandings of menopause, bodily change, and ageing. Findings reveal that menopause is rarely recognized as a distinct physiological phase; instead, it is understood through idioms of ageing, declining strength, spiritual disturbance, or moral change. Symptoms such as body pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and emotional shifts are normalized as part of growing older or attributed to a lifetime of physical labour, rather than menopause itself. The absence of open discussion and formal health guidance means that indigenous women often enter this phase unprepared, learning about menopause through embodied experience or observation of older women.

The paper argues that menopause exposes a critical polarization in women’s health between reproductive and post-reproductive life stages. Once fertility ends, women’s bodies increasingly fall outside the scope of formal healthcare, increasing reliance on traditional healers, family support, and personal endurance. At the same time, menopause create new possibilities, relief from menstruation and pregnancy anxiety, shifts in domestic and social roles, and increased participation in community life.

The narratives within this paper calls for rethinking women’s health beyond reproduction highlighting the need for anthropological engagement with ageing, care, and silence in a polarized world.