Tales of the Second Spring: Menopause in Turkey Through the Narratives of Menopausal Women and Gynecologists

Abstract

Medicalization of menopause is a relatively recent phenomenon, originating from and shaped in the Northern American and Western European cultural context. This article, which is based on data from ethnographic research done in Istanbul between June 2006 and March 2007, explores how menopause is perceived and constructed in Turkey. Since the 1920s, Western science and technology has been accepted as the "guide" for the Turkish modernization project. Starting with the 1980s, neoliberalism and globalization brought structural changes, new notions, and practices in the health care sector as well as furthering and changing the modernization ideals. In this article I illustrate the interactions between modernization, globalization, femininity, and health by juxtaposing narratives of menopause as told by women and physicians. I argue that the ideals of modernity, especially the concept of "consciousness" (bilinç), provide a discursive basis for the adoption of the global medical discourse around menopause in the Turkish context.

The dialectic of (menopause) zest: Breaking the mold of organizational irrelevance

“…We organized the 150 testimonials into two thematic categories: (1) positive experiences of menopause (i.e., 17 articles); and (2) problems associated with menopause (i.e., 133 articles). Following earlier studies (Erol, 2009; Utz, 2011), negative testimonials included descriptions of aging, which was cast as a force working against health and beauty. Our analysis revealed two main themes: (1) physical decline, mainly in terms of symptomatology; and (2) feelings of loss, associated with the end of fertility and the loss of beauty.…”

“…In the past few decades—especially in Western contexts, the meaning of menopause has shifted to an increasingly medicalized state characterized by the biological deficits of an aging female body (Utz, 2011). Menopause—the mark of the end of fertility—is thus referred to as a decline, the entry to an undesirable aging process (Erol, 2009). We argue that this perspective fundamentally impacts the social construction of menopause: It is a problem that must be fixed.…”

“…Women in China and Japan have a lower prevalence of hot flushes than women in the US and Canada, and they rarely associate these hot flushes with embarrassment like their Western counterparts (Shea, 2020). The terms, “second spring” or “rebirth,” are frequently associated with menopause in the literature of traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture (Wolfe, 1990) and suggest a positive transition (Erol, 2009; Faumenbaum, 2014).…”

“…In conversation with feminist writers and the women providing The Guardian testimonials, we advance our understanding of menopause as a transformational phase that should not be exclusively viewed through the lens of deterioration and decline (Erol, 2009). Medicalized perspectives and vocabularies have long played a dominant role in our interpretation and representation of female processes of aging.…”

From opportunity to obligation: Medicalization of post-menopausal sexuality in Turkey

“…Hormone use was advocated throughout the 1990s for most menopausal women, until the scare that came after the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study results in 2003, although it never reached the levels in North America. 4 After the WHI study results, hormone prescriptions decreased even further, resulting in US pharmaceutical company Wyeth's withdrawal from the postmenopausal hormone market in Turkey (Erol, 2009). …”