MEDICALIZATION OF WOMENS 3RD-AGE

Medicalization usually refers to the process whereby the normal proces ses of pregnancy, childbirth, menstruation and menopause have been cla imed and redefined by medicine. Rather than discussing medicalization and menopause in terms of tile number of women taking hormones, or the percentage of physicians convinced they should prescribe them, this p aper looks at the visual image of the menopausal woman as portrayed in the pharmaceutical literature and in the mass media. Unlike the depre ssed and sickly looking women shown in the pharmaceutical advertisemen ts in the 1970s, this 1990s version of the menopausal woman is shown g lowing with fitness, with well-maintained teeth, hair and skin,far too fit to break a hip, have a heart attack, or witness the slow destruct ion of their minds by Alzheimer's disease. This image is not to be con fused with the reality of being a menopausal woman, yet the two are in timately intertwined, for the image determines how menopausal women se e themselves and how they are seen in the wider society. The final sec tion of the paper discusses how health is the new virtue for women as they age as each individual is held responsible for what happens to he r body, particularly in terms of the decisions made at the time of men opause.