The Medicalisation of Women's Health
By Denice Finnegan (Page 2)
The oral contraceptive pill and hormone replacement therapy have been marketed as the solution for many wide ranging ‘medical problems and ‘health conditions. Indeed this is reflected in my Naturopathic practice, where I commonly see women, now in their mid-twenties, who were placed on the OCP in their teen years to deal with an acne problem. Many women take the OCP to regulate their period, reduce a heavy flow, or reduce PMS. To make even more profit from hormone manipulation, the market has been diversified to target women having difficulty falling pregnant – the disease of infertility. The range of symptoms or conditions that are ‘treated using hormone altering medications is growing, from anorexia to obesity, from acne to low libido.
Medicalisation contributes to menopause being defined by its physical aspects, with no regard to social, environmental, economic or political influences on them. Menopause is defined as a medical condition, by its symptoms: hot flushing, changed hormonal levels, crawling sensations on the skin and depression. So lets look at menopause from this broader perspective. Firstly, the assumption is that every woman will get symptoms of menopause, menopause is an undesirable ‘condition and it should be medically treated. Economically, HRT becomes very profitable when large numbers of women are encouraged to consume it for decades.
The social influences have been very strongly persuasive. For many years, research on HRT was quoted by the medical profession in popular women's magazines to convince women of the benefits of this treatment. As well as treating their hot flushes, they got a bonus - softer skin, increased bone density, protection from heart disease, youthfulness, emotional stability, desirability and a better sex life. The social imperative for women to stay young, desirable sexual beings made HRT hugely successful. The Beauty Myth for women over 50. Politically – specifically, the use of power in our society – are the issues of women having control over their own bodies. A lot of hormone-changing medications purport to giving women power by giving them choice. This is false choice – as it is only about which product to consume. The real choice is to decide what (if anything) is done to her body, how, where and who is doing it. Only she should have the power to make that decision.
How Does this relate to Natural Therapies?
Natural Therapies are not exempt from this kind of propaganda. Medicalisation in the Natural Therapies world is alive and strong. Medicalisation in its component parts is:
- a product (medicine) and
- a person (the patient) whose role is to be a passive recipient
- a physical condition that is defined as a medical issue,
- an expert, who holds all the knowledge, the implied secrets and the solutions to the patients health, and takes control of the whole process
As Natural Therapists, we therefore have four areas that we can act to make a difference :
- The products
- The client
- The condition
- The Natural Therapists role
Redefining The Products
If we rely on the manufacturers information about their products, we know only one aspect of this medicine: that is the scientific basis. Intellectual knowledge about a medicine does not guarantee its wise or useful application. In the past, herbalists understood their herbal medicines wholistically – including the environment, the growth cycle, the energetic properties, the connection to the time of year and the relevance to a persons condition. This knowledge is more than isolation of product content – requiring inherently acquired skills of observation, assessment, experience, intuition, and relating to people.
If we practice the skill of wildcrafting, in today's environment its risky – it does not obey the rules of the scientific method. Yet reliance upon the pharmaceutical industry to supply our tools of trade - our herbal and other medicines – places ‘our tools into the hands of an industry that does not share our value base and does not serve us or our clients needs. As a profession we need to have control over the source of the raw materials, the method of processing, and teaching these valuable wildcrafting skills.
Our herbs also possess other qualities. Some have classified herbs as having warm, hot, cooling, or drying properties. You would have noticed, among the many nervines available to us, they all have subtle differences. When working with a woman, we might choose Avena for those who are run-down, whose nervous system is thin and needs ‘fattening up. Alternatively, Pulsatilla, for those who are weepy, anxious and fragile. Valerian for those who have poor quality sleep, but not those who are prone to react to things easily, not the sensitive. Chamomilla when stress effects her digestive system, especially her stomach, so that she has no appetite. Skullcap when her head is so full, constantly thinking and worrying, that it feels it could burst. Rosmarinus when she is dull, lethargic in mind and digestion. We've learnt these things from observation, over time. When we re-evaluate our medicines like this, we re-value them, as tools in a subtle art, with personalities and energetic properties. Not just a bunch of chemicals that perform on demand – like the popular advertising that persuades people that St Johns Wort fixes depression, much the same as prozac might.
Redefining the Role of The Client
Australians are seeing alternative health practitioners 62% more than they were ten years ago. However, only 10% of herbs being consumed are actually prescribed by the same alternative health practitioners. Most people self prescribe in response to the plethora of advertising material available on Natural Therapies and products. So mostly they are not coming to a practitioner for a product.
I believe clients are coming to a Natural Therapist:
- for affirmation of their beliefs about health - to prevent illness, improve wellness and overall quality of life
- to gain a better understanding of their health and reasons for their illness
- for provision of a wholistic treatment, that takes into account all of them
- for provision of an effective health service, often after being told there is nothing the medical profession can do for them.
- to be an active participant in the process of making and sustaining healthy life choices.
- for a treatment with no damaging side effects, and which is non-intrusive.
- to be listened to, & to work out a specific, relevant, individual, workable treatment strategy
People are not mechanistic bundles of organs, systems, blood, bones and skin . Human beings are energetic beings, comprising a life force, metaphysical properties, mental and emotional spheres and a spiritual body. Your client must be seen as a whole: a social being, of a certain age, gender, state of health, with certain beliefs, values and skills, who is involved in relationships to others, a personal and family history, and much more. We can focus not on the name of the disease, but attend to how this woman experiences her self and her condition. Then we work with the client to re-establish her natural balance.Next page >>