Creative Pause: A collaborative, autoethnographic research project exploring how storytelling menopause experiences might support wellbeing

This article reports on Creative Pause: a pilot research project, funded by Research England that explored creative responses to lived experiences of menopause and measured the effects on wellbeing. Menopause is a major part of the life course, yet its wellbeing implications remain poorly understood and this leads to negative impacts on lives. Despite recent media attention, there is a lack of understanding of lived experience and a lack of visible stories about menopause in literary texts and the arts. With creative workshops in poetry, dance, drawing and other embodied writing techniques, the project identified that workshops can support the wellbeing of people navigating this obscured stage in the life course. This collaborative, autoethnographic article co-produced by workshop participants (equally valued as researchers) and the research team uses dialogue, creative and reflective writing to explore the lived experience of menopause. It will show how creativity, specifically storytelling through writing, image, speaking and listening, or movement, can help not only navigate this transitional life stage but also raise awareness and consequently
understanding. We argue that supporting people to tell and share stories that draw on lived experiences of the menopause can support them to navigate this liminal space.