“Double Trouble”: Menopausal relationship complications experienced by lesbian, lesbian/asexual, lesbian/queer and queer women in same-sex couples

Despite growing awareness about the significance of menopause in women’s lives, there is very limited research on its impact upon their relationships, especially in relation to women in same-sex relationships. This article reports on a small-scale research project with twelve lesbian/queer identifying women who had experienced/were experiencing menopause transitions, exploring the impact on same-sex relationships. The women’s narratives suggested distinct differences between those who experienced their respective menopause transitions at different times and those who experienced them at the same time. In particular the former had to live with menopause (i.e., their own and their partner’s) for longer, while the latter had to deal with the challenges and complexities of overlapping, and sometimes magnified, symptoms. The narratives of two women who left their partners during menopause also highlighted, in contrast with extant literature, that not all women in same-sex couples work through menopause transitions together. This article argues that menopause constitutes “double trouble” for women in same-sex couples, complicating and compounding their experiences, and requiring specific forms of relationship-work to navigate the challenges they encounter.