The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women's Ageing

The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women's Ageing
Author: Alison M. Downham Moore
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 501
Release: 2022-10-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0192654527

Doctors writing about menopause in France vastly outnumbered those in other cultures throughout the entire nineteenth century. The concept of menopause was invented by French male medical students in the aftermath of the French Revolution, becoming an important pedagogic topic and a common theme of doctors' professional identities in postrevolutionary biomedicine. Older women were identified as an important patient cohort for the expanding medicalisation of French society and were advised to entrust themselves to the hygienic care of doctors in managing the whole era of life from around and after the final cessation of menses. However, menopause owed much of its conceptual weft to earlier themes of women as the sicker sex, of vitalist crisis, of the vapours, and of astrological climacteric years. This is the first comprehensive study of the origins of the medical concept of menopause, richly contextualising its role in nineteenth-century French medicine and revealing the complex threads of meaning that informed its invention. It tells a complex story of how women's ageing featured in the demographic revolution in modern science, in the denigration of folk medicine, in the unique French field of hygiène, and in the fixation on women in the emergence of modern psychiatry. It reveals the nineteenth-century French origins of the still-current medical and alternative-health approaches to women's ageing as something to be managed through gynaecological surgery, hormonal replacement, and lifestyle intervention.

The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women's Ageing

The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women's Ageing
Author: Alison M. Downham Moore
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 501
Release: 2022
Genre: History
ISBN: 0192842919

Doctors writing about menopause in France vastly outnumbered those in other cultures throughout the entire nineteenth century. The concept of menopause was invented by French male medical students in the aftermath of the French Revolution, becoming an important pedagogic topic and a common theme of doctors' professional identities in postrevolutionary biomedicine. Older women were identified as an important patient cohort for the expanding medicalisation of French society and were advised to entrust themselves to the hygienic care of doctors in managing the whole era of life from around and after the final cessation of menses. However, menopause owed much of its conceptual weft to earlier themes of women as the sicker sex, of vitalist crisis, of the vapours, and of astrological climacteric years. This is the first comprehensive study of the origins of the medical concept of menopause, richly contextualising its role in nineteenth-century French medicine and revealing the complex threads of meaning that informed its invention. It tells a complex story of how women's ageing featured in the demographic revolution in modern science, in the denigration of folk medicine, in the unique French field of hygiène, and in the fixation on women in the emergence of modern psychiatry. It reveals the nineteenth-century French origins of the still-current medical and alternative-health approaches to women's ageing as something to be managed through gynaecological surgery, hormonal replacement, and lifestyle intervention.

The Wrong Prescription for Women

The Wrong Prescription for Women
Author: Maureen C. McHugh
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2015-07-14
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1440831777

This groundbreaking book challenges the medicalized approach to women's experiences including menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause and suggests that there are better ways for women to cope with real issues they may face. Before any woman diets, douches, botoxes, reduces, reconstructs, or fills a prescription for antidepressants, statins, hormones, menstrual suppressants, or diet pills, she should read this book. Contesting common medical practice, the book addresses the many aspects of women's lives that have been targeted as "deficient" in order to support the billion-dollar profits of the medical-pharmacological industry and suggests alternatives to these "remedies." The contributors—psychologists, sociologists, and health experts—are also gender experts and feminist scholars who recognize the ways in which gender is an important aspect of the human experience. In this eye-opening work, they challenge the marketing and "science" that increasingly render women's bodies and experiences as a series of symptoms, diseases, and dysfunctions that require treatment by medical professionals who prescribe pharmaceutical and surgical interventions. Each article in the book addresses the marketing of a specific "condition" that has been constructed in a way that convinces a woman that her body is inadequate or her experience and behavior are not good enough. Among the topics addressed are menstruation, menopause, pregnancy, post-partum adjustment, sexual desire, weight, body dissatisfaction, moodiness, depression, grief, and anxiety.

Designing with the Body

Designing with the Body
Author: Kristina Hook
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2018-11-13
Genre: Design
ISBN: 0262348330

Interaction design that entails a qualitative shift from a symbolic, language-oriented stance to an experiential stance that encompasses the entire design and use cycle. With the rise of ubiquitous technology, data-driven design, and the Internet of Things, our interactions and interfaces with technology are about to change dramatically, incorporating such emerging technologies as shape-changing interfaces, wearables, and movement-tracking apps. A successful interactive tool will allow the user to engage in a smooth, embodied, interaction, creating an intimate correspondence between users' actions and system response. And yet, as Kristina Höök points out, current design methods emphasize symbolic, language-oriented, and predominantly visual interactions. In Designing with the Body, Höök proposes a qualitative shift in interaction design to an experiential, felt, aesthetic stance that encompasses the entire design and use cycle. Höök calls this new approach soma design; it is a process that reincorporates body and movement into a design regime that has long privileged language and logic. Soma design offers an alternative to the aggressive, rapid design processes that dominate commercial interaction design; it allows (and requires) a slow, thoughtful process that takes into account fundamental human values. She argues that this new approach will yield better products and create healthier, more sustainable companies. Höök outlines the theory underlying soma design and describes motivations, methods, and tools. She offers examples of soma design “encounters” and an account of her own design process. She concludes with “A Soma Design Manifesto,” which challenges interaction designers to “restart” their field—to focus on bodies and perception rather than reasoning and intellect.

Clinical Gynecology

Clinical Gynecology
Author: Eric J. Bieber
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1127
Release: 2015-04-23
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1107040396

Written with the busy practice in mind, this book delivers clinically focused, evidence-based gynecology guidance in a quick-reference format. It explores etiology, screening, tests, diagnosis, and treatment for a full range of gynecologic health issues. The coverage includes the full range of gynecologic malignancies, reproductive endocrinology and infertility, infectious diseases, urogynecologic problems, gynecologic concerns in children and adolescents, and surgical interventions including minimally invasive surgical procedures. Information is easy to find and absorb owing to the extensive use of full-color diagrams, algorithms, and illustrations. The new edition has been expanded to include aspects of gynecology important in international and resource-poor settings.

Intersections of Ageing, Gender and Sexualities

Intersections of Ageing, Gender and Sexualities
Author: King, Andrew
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2019-03-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1447333020

With an increasingly diverse ageing population, we need to expand our understanding of how social divisions intersect to affect outcomes in later life. This edited collection examines ageing, gender, and sexualities from multidisciplinary and geographically diverse perspectives and looks at how these factors combine with other social divisions to affect experiences of ageing. It draws on theory and empirical data to provide both conceptual knowledge and clear ‘real-world’ illustrations. The book includes section introductions to guide the reader through the debates and ideas and a glossary offering clear definitions of key terms and concepts.

The Social Context of Ageing

The Social Context of Ageing
Author: Christina Victor
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2004-12-20
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 113459819X

This comprehensive text focuses on the social contexts of ageing, looking at the diversity of ageing and older people, and at different factors that are important to experiences of old age and ageing. It includes key chapters on: theoretical and methodological bases for the study of ageing demographic context of the 'ageing' population health and illness family and social networks formal and informal care and other services for older people. Providing an invaluable introduction to the major issues involved in the study of ageing, this book is essential reading for students of sociology, gerontology, social policy, health and social care, and professionals working with older people.

Anti-ageing Medicine

Anti-ageing Medicine
Author: Astrid Stuckelberger
Publisher: vdf Hochschulverlag AG
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2008
Genre: Aging
ISBN: 3728131954

The 21st century technological development is revolutionizing medicine and health care, bringing new hopes to human suffering by offering cures and treatments which were unthinkable a few decades ago. This is where anti-ageing medicine finds its niche. Anti-ageing medicine aims at slowing, arresting, and reversing phenomena associated with ageing by merging biotechnological innovation and engineered solutions. Ideally, by means of the newest medical technology, the "body machinery" should be kept fit and at peak performance all life long. Early detection of age-related dysfunction should thus be "fixed" at any age with interventions such as metabolic fine tuning, enhancement, regeneration, restoration or replacement of "body parts" (i.e. organs, skin, bone or muscle). It covers a vast array of domains: from cell therapy to pharmaceutical interventions, from bio-surgery to aesthetic surgery, from human enhancement to fortified food, from smart housing and robots to toxic-free environments. Anti-ageing medicine holds promises but also significant risks and safety issues which are addressesd in this book. It presents the latest scientific evidence on what works or does not work. It also provides public policy recommendations to ensure the protection of consumers and their rights while encouraging research and development. This book is intended for academics, health professionals, business persons, consumers and policy-makers interested in the latest evidence and ethical issues about anti-ageing medicine.