Feminism, the Menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy

Bibliographic Data

ID3946276
AuthorsJane Lewis (0000-0002-1184-4298, corresponding author)
Year1993
Issue43
Pages38
Publication date1993-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-7789 • E-ISSN: 1466-4380
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1395068
OpenAlexW4248326390
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited31

During the last two decades the menopause and, as medical textbooks tend to phrase it, 'its management', have become the subject of intensive debate. However, there has been relatively little comment from feminists on the issue, especially in Britain. In part this may be argued to reflect feminists' greater concern (hitherto) with issues of reproduction with birth control, abortion and childbirth than with ageing. As greater numbers of active feminists age, we might expect this situation to change. Some, chiefly American, writers (e.g., Rossi 1980 and Stimpson 1982) have charged that the preoccupation of feminism during the 1970s with equality meant that it tended to ignore issues of difference, especially biological difference. This is a more controversial and, to my mind, dubious argument, given feminism's historical concern about reproductive issues. What seems most important is that the chief medical treatment for menopausal symptoms and, increasingly, for many diseases in postmenopausal womenhormone replacement therapy (HRT) is highly contentious for feminists in a manner not dissimilar to other aspects of modern medical practice. It is difficult for women to weigh up the pros and cons of high-tech medicine (amniocentesis is another example), to decide whether to accept or reject it, and if the former how to exercise some degree of control over it. As this article seeks to show, the HRT debate is particularly complicated in terms of the positions adopted by the actors participating in it: the medical profession has not spoken with a single voice and nor have lay (chiefly women) popularizers, while there is a significant body of epidemiological and social-science research which takes a very different tack from the clinical literature. My aim is not so much to develop a feminist analysis of the menopause and HRT, but rather to situate feminist concerns within the debate

Feminism · Hormone replacement therapy (female-to-male) · Human sexuality · Menopause · Sociology · Testosterone (patch) · Anthropology · Cultural Studies · Endocrinology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Medicine · Menopause: Health Impacts and Treatments

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