Tales of the second spring: menopause in Turkey through the narratives of menopausal women and gynecologists.

Medicalization of menopause is a relatively recent phenomenon, originating from and shaped in the Northern American and Western European cultural context. This article, which is based on data from ethnographic research done in Istanbul between June 2006 and March 2007, explores how menopause is perceived and constructed in Turkey. Since the 1920s, Western science and technology has been accepted as the "guide" for the Turkish modernization project. Starting with the 1980s, neoliberalism and globalization brought structural changes, new notions, and practices in the health care sector as well as furthering and changing the modernization ideals. In this article I illustrate the interactions between modernization, globalization, femininity, and health by juxtaposing narratives of menopause as told by women and physicians. I argue that the ideals of modernity, especially the concept of "consciousness" (bilinç), provide a discursive basis for the adoption of the global medical discourse around menopause in the Turkish context.