Centre for Policy on Ageing



Menopause as a long-term risk to health — implications of general practitioner accounts of prevention for women's choice and decision-making
Author(s)	Madeleine J Murtagh, Julie Hepworth
Journal title	Sociology of Health & Illness, vol 25, no 2, March 2003
Pages	pp 185-207
Keywords	Menopause ; Attitude ; General practitioners ; Rural areas ; Australia.
Annotation	Over the past two decades, medical researchers and modernist feminist researchers have contested the meaning of menopause. In this article, the various meanings of menopause are examined in a semi-structured interview study of general practitioners in rural South Australia. Three discursive themes are identified in these interviews: the hormonal menopause - symptoms, risk, prevention; the informed menopausal woman; and decision-making and hormone replacement therapy (HRT). It is proposed that a new menopause has evolved from a discursive shift in medicine. Within this new configuration, there exists the possibility for change in medical practice which will broaden, strengthen and maintain this position - and will claim women's empowerment as an integral part of health care for menopause. (KJ/RH).
Accession Number	CPA-030319209 A
Classmark	CC:BD: DP: QT6: RL: 7YA
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.