Abstract
Background: Menopause is socially coded as an experience of hormonal change which threatens the vitality and identity of (cisgender) women in midlife; yet this framing overlooks the diversity in menopause experiences across age, gender and sexuality. The significance of these less visible experiences has led to calls to broaden the scope of menopause narratives and representations across research, policy, and practice. Methods : Using an established scoping review methodology, we identified eleven articles that reported empirical research from the perspectives and/or experiences of menopause among gender diverse people (which we widened to include sexuality diverse people where some analyses were equally relevant for gender diverse people). Results : Three thematic categories were produced through our analysis, each implying a provocative expansion of assumptions about specific elements of the menopause experience, namely: timing of symptomology, gender and hormones, and sexuality and reproduction. Underpinning these findings is a pressing need for an alternative way of approaching menopause beyond its clinical characteristics, which, in turn, is carried over to the research that evidences these characteristics. Conclusions : The centering of accounts of menopause that assume cisgender and heterosexual women's experiences to be both normative and normal constrain other social (re)imaginings. We argue for more expansive understandings of menopause beyond this normative and clinical framing to consider the more fulsome breadth of socially situated experiences and perspectives that better serves the needs of gender diverse people.