Austrians know too little about menopause. According to a survey conducted by Marketagent on behalf of Ketchum for the pharmaceutical company Gynial, 57 percent of Austrian households have never addressed the topic. Almost as many respondents (58.8 percent) believe that menopause is still a taboo subject (57.4 percent of women and 60.2 percent of men). For 24.9 percent, it is uncomfortable to talk about it.
Men, in particular (33.2 percent), find the topic unpleasant more often than women (16.5 percent). Three-quarters (78.5 percent) of men do not deal with it, mainly because it does not concern them (53.7 percent) or interest them (19.1 percent). This means that only 21% of men and 54% of women have already read up on the topic of menopause. A third, 30.3 percent of women, only start thinking about menopause when they are affected themselves.
Knowledge about the topic is rather poor. More than a quarter (26.9 percent) believe that menopause lasts up to five years, although it can last up to 15 years—only 5.8 percent know this. Two-thirds (64.7 percent) do not know if or when their mother went through menopause (52.6 percent of women and 76.9 percent of men).
60.3 percent would like more conversations about menopause (68.1 percent of women and 52.3 percent of men). 60 percent think that not enough is being done to understand menopause (63.3 percent of women and 56.5 percent of men), as the survey on the occasion of Menopause Day shows.
Almost half of men (45.9 percent) believe that women lose their desire for sex during menopause. Only a third of women (35.9 percent) share this view (40.9 percent). A quarter of men (23.3%) believe that women lose their attractiveness and femininity during the menopause.
The majority (82.3 percent) agree that menopause is physically stressful, and 73.9 percent believe that women often feel misunderstood. More than a quarter (27.0 percent) of men feel sorry for a woman’s partner during menopause, while only one in ten women (12.7 percent) feels this way.
In another survey conducted by the opinion research institute TQS on behalf of Promedico, a Graz-based distributor of health products, one in three women stated that menopause is experienced as a negative process. They suffer from symptoms such as sleep disorders (56 percent), mood swings (47 percent), hot flashes (27 percent), and depression (27 percent). The hormonal change can also be a stress test for relationships. 60 percent of women would like their partner to be more empathetic. One in ten women also receives no support from their family.
(About the Gynial Survey: The data was collected between August 28 and September 4. 1,000 people aged 14 and 75 from all over Austria participated. The sample was weighted to be representative of the Austrian population. Most participants (65.3%) used a mobile device to participate.
About the Promedico survey: 724 women aged between 45 and 70 were surveyed throughout Austria in April 2024.
This post has already been read 1513 times!