Medicalisation by Whom? Accounts of Menstruation Conveyed by Young Women and Medical Experts in Medical Advisory Columns

The term medicalisation is considered in the light of an empirical study on menstruation as discussed in medical advisory columns. The focus is on how the medical profession responds to young women’s questions about their maturing bodies. The questions are seldom of a medical nature; rather, they are concerned with normality and coping with menstruation in everyday life. The doctors’ response is clear: the patient need not worry, the medical profession is both willing and able to take over the responsibility for, and control over, the body. The medicalisation of menstruation that can be found in advisory columns strengthens the position of the medical establishment as the legitimate authority on the body. Nevertheless, the letters sent to the magazines do not lend support to the idea of medicalisation as an endeavor pursued by the medical profession alone. The letters are also a means whereby young women try to establish standards for proper female gender behaviour in an areas where lay society remains silent.