Medicalization of women's third age

Medicalization usually refers to the process whereby the normal processes of pregnancy, childbirth, menstruation and menopause have been claimed and redefined by medicine. Rather than discussing medicalization and menopause in terms of the number of women taking hormones, or the percentage of physicians convinced they should prescribe them, this paper looks at the visual image of the menopausal woman as portrayed in the pharmaceutical literature and in the mass media. Unlike the depressed and sickly looking women shown in the pharmaceutical advertisements in the 1970s, this 1990s version of the menopausal woman is shown glowing with fitness, with well-maintained teeth, hair and skin, far too fit to break a hip, have a heart attack, or witness the slow destruction of their minds by Alzheimer's disease. This image is not to be confused with the reality of being a menopausal woman, yet the two are intimately intertwined, for the image determines how menopausal women see themselves and how they are seen in the wider society. The final section of the paper discusses how health is the new virtue for women as they age as each individual is held responsible for what happens to her body, particularly in terms of the decisions made at the time of menopause.