Ramirez Michelle
The Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente, Oregon 97227, USA.
Cult Health Sex. 2006 Nov-Dec;8(6):545-58. doi: 10.1080/13691050600891909.
For several decades, hormone replacement therapies have been prescribed to women, not only to prevent disease but to improve the sexual functioning of menopausal women. The medical promotion of continued sexual activity in a woman's post-reproductive years is exported to locations outside of North America and Europe, which provides an opportunity to critically examine the cultural roots that have informed expert biomedical representations. This ethnographic study examined menopause and social class in Oaxaca de Juarez, Mexico using interviews, questionnaires, and textual analysis. The research found that biomedicine in conjunction with the pharmaceutical industry promoted culturally constructed gender hierarchies under the guise of optimal menopausal health. However, women's actual experience of gender and sexuality in mid-life diverged significantly from these expert representations. Themes that emerged in interviews and questionnaires included the importance of motherhood in old age, diminished sexual desire as not problematic, and greater sexual freedom at a post-reproductive age. Ultimately, biomedical discourse was not the sole arbiter of appropriate menopausal womanhood and femininity.
几十年来，激素替代疗法一直被开给女性，不仅用于预防疾病，还用于改善更年期女性的性功能。在北美和欧洲以外的地区，医学上对女性生殖后持续性行为的推广提供了一个契机，来批判性地审视那些为生物医学专家观点提供依据的文化根源。这项人种志研究通过访谈、问卷调查和文本分析，对墨西哥瓦哈卡州华雷斯市的更年期和社会阶层进行了研究。研究发现，生物医学与制药行业以最佳更年期健康为幌子，促进了文化建构的性别等级制度。然而，女性在中年时期的性别和性取向的实际经历与这些专家观点有很大差异。访谈和问卷调查中出现的主题包括老年时期母亲身份的重要性、性欲减退并非问题以及生殖后年龄更大的性自由。最终，生物医学话语并不是更年期女性气质和女性特质的唯一仲裁者。
