The marketing of estrogens for menopausal and postmenopausal women

Menopausa, hormônios, envelhecimento: discursos de mulheres que vivem em um bairro na periferia da cidade de São Paulo, estado de São Paulo, Brasil

OBJETIVOS: analisar os discursos de mulheres usuárias de unidade básica de saúde da periferia da cidade de São Paulo, no estado de São Paulo, Brazil, sobre a menopausa para compreender os sentidos que elas atribuem a este evento. MÉTODOS: foram entrevistadas oito mulheres entre 44 e 75 anos, empregando-se a metodologia qualitativa na perspectiva do construcionismo social, de modo que os dados foram coletados por meio de observação participante, história de vida e entrevistas. RESULTADOs: nas mulheres estudadas, a menopausa é vivida de modo geral como um acontecimento inevitável, relacionado ao corpo e à vida, e é considerada uma entidade estranha, ou inimiga, que ataca as mulheres de maneira inesperada. CONCLUSÕES: nas mulheres estudadas os resultados indicam que este período deve ser percebido em seu caráter particular e relativo, não como sendo da ordem do universal ou como algo padronizado.

Loyalties in clinical research on drugs: The case of hormone replacement therapy

In this study, physicians' loyalties toward patients and pharmaceutical companies in clinical drug research are explored, using Bourdieu's conceptual tools. The utilization of estrogen supplements in so-called hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for healthy menopausal and postmenopausal women is used as a case. For over 60 years a multitude of reports in medical journals have praised the benefits of HRT, even though some studies indicated hazards. Clinical studies and promotional campaigns resulted in prescriptions of HRT for millions of women. A large randomized controlled clinical trial known as the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) in 2002 demonstrated that many of the claims of benefits of HRT had been misguiding; the risks of cancer and heart disease had been proven higher than most purported benefits. I draw on Bourdieu's theories to emphasize that a more distinct demarcation line between those who dispose their economic capital in the interests of producing and promoting products for profit, and those who exchange their cultural capital for economic benefits, is needed to ensure trust in physicians' loyalty to patients is not eroded.

Hormone replacement therapy, cancer, controversies, and women's health: historical, epidemiological, biological, clinical, and advocacy perspectives

Routine acceptance of use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was shattered in 2002 when results of the largest HRT randomised clinical trial, the women's health initiative, indicated that long term use of oestrogen plus progestin HRT not only was associated with increased risk of cancer but, contrary to expectations, did not decrease, and may have increased, risk of cardiovascular disease. In June 2004 a group of historians, epidemiologists, biologists, clinicians, and women's health advocates met to discuss the scientific and social context of and response to these findings. It was found that understanding the evolving and contending knowledge on hormones and health requires: (1) considering its societal context, including the impact of the pharmaceutical industry, the biomedical emphasis on individualised risk and preventive medicine, and the gendering of hormones; and (2) asking why, for four decades, since the mid-1960s, were millions of women prescribed powerful pharmacological agents already demonstrated, three decades earlier, to be carcinogenic? Answering this question requires engaging with core issues of accountability, complexity, fear of mortality, and the conduct of socially responsible science.

Exploring the continuum: medical information to effective clinical practice. Paper I: the translation of knowledge into clinical practice

This paper investigates the translation of medical information into clinical practice and the role of thoughtful dissent by exploring the influence of sociological factors on change, the impact of evidence-based medicine (EBM), and the role of industry. Changing practice related to hormone therapy for menopausal and post-menopausal women provides context for this discussion. Medical change involves diffusion of ideas to potential users and ongoing reconciliation of new information with old ideas; this process is influenced by sociological factors including values and experiences, interpersonal relationships and local context. While EBM has alerted doctors to the importance of high quality research and theoretically provides a tool for translating research into practice, there are important problems with its application: (1) it has resulted in a reductionist approach to research and illness; (2) there is a considerable gap between research findings and the complex environment of clinical practice; and (3) EBM has been appropriated by experts, thus corporately developed 'standard-of-care' documents have become instruments of external regulation, and EBM has ceased to be a tool in the hand of individual clinicians. In addition, industry impacts the translation of knowledge by significantly influencing academia, researchers, medical publications, consensus conferences, and practising doctors. While questioning doctrinaire practices or directives is a daunting prospect for individual clinicians, the translation of knowledge into practice and evolution of medical thought is dependent on the progressive role of thoughtful dissent.

Managing menopause: a qualitative analysis of self-help literature for women at midlife

This article reports on a qualitative social constructionist analysis that aims to examine the ways in which menopause and women's bodies are represented in self-help texts. In particular, we aim to compare texts with a more traditional 'medical' approach and others taking a more 'woman-centred' perspective. Four diverse self-help books on menopause and HRT available in England were analysed to examine the ways in which women, menopause and midlife were portrayed, and to investigate the construction of notions of knowledge, expertise and responsibility. The selected texts were published between 1992 and 1996 and covered a range of perspectives, including medical, alternative and feminist. Results showed that menopause was constructed as a 'deficiency disease' in all four texts, although in three of the texts this 'disease' discourse was counterposed by the simultaneous use of a 'menopause as natural' discourse. Menopause was also constructed as inherently complex and confusing, as were women's bodies. A discourse of 'change' was drawn upon in which menopause was portrayed as only one of the stressful events women must cope with at midlife. Finally, most of the texts drew on a discourse of 'management' rather than one of 'treatment' or 'cure' when discussing how menopause, and women's relationship to menopause should be handled. The medical profession was constructed as the primary source of expertise on menopause and women's bodies, although responsibility for the 'management' of menopause as a chronic condition lay solely with individual women. Although there were a number of differences in representations of menopause in medically oriented self-help texts and those adopting a more woman-centred perspective, our analysis also revealed several areas of similarity and overlap with regard to the construction of menopause and its 'management'. The implications of these findings for the construction of menopause in self-help texts for women are discussed.

The medicalization of menopause: critique and consequences

Menopause is in the process of becoming medicalized. Midlife and older women are being told that natural menopause is actually a deficiency condition requiring replacement hormones to maintain health and increase longevity. The three major diseases that are being linked with the lower estrogen levels of midlife and older women are heart disease, osteoporosis and, most recently, Alzheimer's disease. Primary prevention of these diseases is the rationale used for urging healthy women to take long-term hormones. Although there have been many challenges to these links and warnings against the widespread use of hormones, they have been either ignored or trivialized. In this article, the author examines mortality and morbidity statistics across and within nations and over time, critiques the major arguments used to support the notion that menopause places women at an increased risk of disease and that exogenous hormones reduce this risk, and discusses the adverse consequences of defining all midlife and older women as hormonally deficient and in need of medical intervention.

Finnish physicians' attitudes towards preconsultation information: menopausal treatment practices as an example

The purpose of this study was to investigate Finnish physicians' attitudes towards consumer groups provision of information about physicians' treatment practices, using menopause as a specific example. A questionnaire to be used to make a public brochure listing physicians by their menopausal and postmenopausal treatment practice was sent by consumer organizations to 812 physicians [gynecologists and general practitioners (GPs)] in 1995, after contacting the physicians' associations for support for this activity. The gynecological association had a negative attitude towards the study while that of the GPs' association was more favorable. The response rate was 38% (n = 307). Only 5% of the physicians who got the questionnaire wanted to participate in the planned brochure and only 21% of those responding considered preconsultation information a good idea. The most common reasons for not wanting to participate were that preconsultation information is medically unfeasible and that it would be incompatible with physician's current working practice. Approaches other than public brochures about physicians' treatment patterns are needed if we want to increase patients' participation in decision-making.