“BIG PHARMA” IN OUR BEDROOMS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE MEDICALIZATION OF WOMEN’S SEXUAL PROBLEMS

Abstract

We are in the midst of a broad societal change in which women’s sexual problems are becoming increasingly medicalized, characterized as treatable medical conditions and defined and understood as a largely physiologically based disease, called “female sexual dysfunction” (FSD). When a condition is medicalized, a medical framework is used to understand it, and medical interventions are used to treat it. As part of this process, then, over the last several years, researchers and pharmaceutical companies have turned attention to developing medical treatments for FSD. As this medicalization continues to unfold with potentially important impacts, it is crucial that we understand the forces working to shape it.

Citation

Hartley, H. (2003), "“BIG PHARMA” IN OUR BEDROOMS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE MEDICALIZATION OF WOMEN’S SEXUAL PROBLEMS", Texler Segal, M., Demos, V. and Kronenfeld, J.J. (Ed.) Gender Perspectives on Health and Medicine (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 89-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2126(03)07004-8