Exploring the discursive construction of menopause for Thai women

The terms 'menopause' and 'mid-life women' have become the subjects of both the medical gaze and a billion-dollar industry built by pharmaceutical companies to manage the 'problems' of menopause. Menopause is a discursive construction, a label that has become endowed with a large number of taken-for-granted assumptions about physical and psychological symptoms, self-image and health status. These assumptions are based on the medical interests, social preoccupations, research and subsequent drug-marketing strategies conducted in western societies. Thai society is structured around a different philosophy, which has created different meanings for the mid-life woman. This paper explores the Western discourses of menopause and the colonizing effect when the assumptions underpinning these are imposed on Thai women.