Key Findings from Mental Health Research During the Menopause Transition for Racially and Ethnically Minoritized Women Living in the United States: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Background:

Racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) women experience social and structural factors that may affect their response to mental health treatment and menopausal symptoms during the menopause transition (MT). This scoping review on mental health during the MT for REM women in the United States was conducted to characterize factors associated with mental health challenges.

Materials and Methods:

Five databases were searched. Articles were included if focused on MT in REM women in the United States and its territories with specific mental illnesses and published in English from 2005 to 2021. Titles and abstracts and full text were screened. Screening and data collection were completed in duplicate by two reviewers in Covidence.

Results:

Sixty-five articles were included and indicate that REM women experience a disproportionate burden of depressive symptoms during the MT. Less evidence is reported about anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, psychosis, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses. The risk factors associated with mental illness during MT are social, structural, and biological. Treatment response to therapeutic interventions is often underpowered to explain REM differences.

Conclusion:

Depression during the MT is associated with negative outcomes that may impact REM women differentially. Incorporating theoretical frameworks ( e.g., intersectionality, weathering) into mental health research will reduce the likelihood that scientists mislabel race as the cause of these inequities, when racism and intersecting systems of oppression are the root causes of differential expression of mental illness among REM women during the MT. There is a need for interdisciplinary research to advance the mental health of REM women.