- Overall, men know the transition through menopause can bring difficult symptoms for their wife or partner and that there may be ways to ease some of them, a small survey suggests.
Parish and colleagues recruited more than 450 men to take a 35-question survey that gauged their awareness of menopausal symptoms and their understanding of menopause and its treatment options. The survey also asked about the impact of the partner's symptoms on the man, and the influence men have on their partner's menopausal symptom management.
Nearly two thirds of participants said they were affected by their partner's menopausal symptoms. Most of these said the impact was negative for the men, their partners and their relationships due to arguments, tension and reduced intimacy. At the same time, most men thought their partners were coping fairly well with the symptoms.
Two-thirds of the men said they'd feel comfortable discussing treatment options with their partners and four in 10 had suggested treatment options to their partners.