Summary:
SWF researcher Dr Emma Pavey is researching perimenopause, menopause and theology from various angles, a topic that is current and yet also massively under-explored. This project is looking at different ways theological thinking can accompany those experiencing peri/menopause, but also vice versa – how peri/menopause can serve theology and the church through dialogue with those experiencing it. A cornerstone of this project is therefore to listen to and learn from each others’ experiences.
“What kind of things do we need, around liturgy and ecclesiology and discipleship…[a] kind of framework, which then means that they can have the flexibility and the change in the navigation…that’s really difficult if we never actually talk about it in the life of the church, and we never, in fact, acknowledge it.” Research participant
Shared learning:
One aspect of this project is shared learning and knowledge exchange. Emma is offering a two-day, in-person course at Sarum on October 31st – November 1st, 2026. Register here.
This follows a half-day online course on Menopause and Theology in collaboration with Sarum College on February 26th 2025, a well-received morning which she reflects on here.
Resource:
Emma has produced a conversation guide for small groups in faith communities entitled ‘Moving into Menopause’. This is available as a printed booklet – contact us for details. It is also available to download as a pdf (full colour or low colour for home printing). A facilitator guide is also available.
‘Absolutely love it…There’s so much in here, it’s brilliant…accessible’ (Quote from resource recipient)
If you use this resource, or if you would like to talk about how it could be used, please do get in touch with Emma. Click below for downloads.
Moving into Menopause full colour booklet
Moving into Menopause low colour booklet
Moving into Menopause facilitator guide
Research:
Emma carried out action research with a range of diverse voices, engaging in conversation with a group of those living in the UK who have felt potential connections of some kind between their own Christian theology and practice of faith and their own ongoing or recent experience of (peri)menopause, and/or who were interested in dialogue where such connections might emerge.
The project has already elicited all kinds of potential themes and metaphors with theological resonance including issues around change/transformation, intersectional identity, visibility/vulnerability, agency/control, and practicalities related to faith practice.
Academic outputs and impact include the following:
In person – presentations and panel discussions:
Upcoming:
- ‘The dis-rupture of perimenopause: queer solidarity and difference’. Paper accepted for presentation at the 22nd ISRLC Biennial Conference, University of Stirling, Scotland, September 10-13, 2026. Abstract here.
Past
- Panel discussion at Faith Lives of Women and Girls research symposium, June 29th, 2026.
- Panel discussion at Women in Methodism: Contested Identities Past and Present, organised by the Research Network of Westminster College Oxford, May 23rd, 2026.
- ‘“I am becoming a more substantial woman”: exploring the perspective of the eroded in menopause literature and experience’. 2025. Paper presented at ‘Erosion – Creimeadh’, the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, UK and Ireland (ASLE-UKI) Biennial Conference, 12-14 August 2025, University of Galway.
- ‘“I am becoming a more substantial woman”: body, soul and church in perimenopause’. 2025. Paper presented at the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT) annual conference, July 8-10, 2025, Northampton.
- Menopause as/and metaphor. 2025. Workshop on metaphor and embodiment facilitated at the Uncontrolling Love of God conference on Open and Relational Theology, June 4-6, 2025, Northampton.
- ‘Methodist menopause? Initial findings from an action research project‘. 2025. Paper presented at Methodist Studies Seminar, Wesley Study Centre, St John’s College, Durham, 10th May, 2025.
- ‘Confronting irresistible decay in contemporary (peri)menopause narratives and experience’. 2025. Paper presented at Irresistible Decay: Discourses of Death in Life from the 18th Century to Today, interdisciplinary conference, University of Warwick, 7th March, 2025.
On paper:
- In development, an edited book to be published on perimenopause and theology, drawing on a diverse range of contributors.
- ‘Towards a Public Theology of Menopause’, 2025, Religions 16(4). (As of July 2026: cited in 1 work, 2859 views)
- ‘The Change: Yoga, Theology and the Menopause’, 2022, Religions 13(4). (As of July 2026: cited in 6 works, 4167 views)
