Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Menopause experience in First Nations women and initiatives for
menopause symptom awareness; a community-based participatory research
approach
Version: 
1 
Date: 
27 Mar 2021
Reviewer's report:
This is a potentially-useful addition to the literature. My comments are only built
upon the first revision of the submitted script. 
Page 8, line 28/29: The participant's question: 'What is next?' may be interpreted
in different ways apart from the authors state. It may also mean: What will you
offer to us after this? HRT? Counselling or ask us to further Focus Group
discussion. It may also reflect an exasperated participant, who feel that the
exercise might be a means to an end. A statement appreciating this should be
fine.
Page 9, lines 46/55: Some form of explanatory notes might be needed to put this
segment in context.
Page 10, lines 27/29: Not every reader will appreciate the idea of 'empty nest
syndrome'. This was a perception of, and an imput from the authors, not the
participants. This needs to be made clear.
Page 12, line 30/31: The statement by a participant : 'that is why it is called
MENOpause' brings up two issues. In what language of communication was this
Focus Group Discussion. If it was in English, what proportion of the participants
had a college education? Even then, that ability for wordplay is rather striking. If
the language of communication was not in English, then the authors need to
adjust their conveyance of what was said and how it came across.
Page 16, line 14/34: Was there a pamphlet translated into the Cree language? If
so, what proportion of the women could read either in English or in written Cree
language?
Why was the MENQOL questionnaire used in this exercise, when it was not
designed for the purpose? Was there any help offered to those who had
symptoms of concern? Maybe the lady who asked : what next was one of those?
Publons Reviewer Recognition
. Springer Nature can send verification of this
review directly to Publons (a subsidiary of Clarivate Analytics). If you would
like to take advantage of this service, please click on the “Yes” option below.
Your name, email address, title of the reviewed manuscript, name of the journal,
and date of your review submission (the “Review Data”) will then be transmitted
to Publons after the final decision on the manuscript has been made. If you have
already registered at Publons, they will notify you of the receipt of this review
and update your profile 
as per your settings and their policy. If you are not
registered with Publons, you will receive an email from them asking you to
register in order for them to be able to recognize your review on your new
profile page. Publons may use the Review Data to generate derivative metadata
for the benefit of Publons and you as a reviewer, carefully considering the
sensitivity of such information. For example, Publons may verify your record as
a reviewer by updating your profile published on its webservice if you have
registered for such service or help editors to identify candidate reviewers. Please
find the details of processing in Publons’ privacy policy
https://publons.com/about/terms
No
Declaration of competing interests
Please complete a declaration of competing
interests, considering the following questions:
1
. 
Have you in the past five years received reimbursements, fees, funding, or
salary from an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially
from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future?
2
. 
Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may in any way
gain or lose financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now
or in the future?
3
. 
Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents relating to the
content of the manuscript?
4
. 
Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an
organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of
the manuscript?
5
. 
Do you have any other financial competing interests?
6
. 
Do you have any non-financial competing interests in relation to this
paper?
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I have no competing
interests' below. If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Reviewer Publication Consent.
 I agree for my report to be made available
under an Open Access Creative Commons CC-BY License (
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
) if this manuscript is accepted for
publication. Any comments that I do not wish to be included in the published
report have been included as confidential comments to the editor, which will not
be published.
If you are not happy for us to publish this report, please contact the
editorial office before completing the review.
If you wish, you can include your
name in your published report. Please note you must decide whether to include
your name at the start of the process and confirm this decision whenever
prompted. If you change your decision later, we will not be able to publish your
name.
I agree to the terms of the CC-BY 4.0 license; please 
do not
 publish my name
with my report. (default)
Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use
of appropriate controls), and are the conclusions supported by the evidence
presented?
Yes
Are the methods sufficiently described to allow the study to be repeated?
Yes
Is the use of statistics and treatment of uncertainties appropriate?
Yes
Is the presentation of the work clear?
Yes
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free
from apparent manipulation?
Yes