Volume 132, May 2015, Pages 79–87
Bioidentical hormones, menopausal women, and the lure of the “natural” in U.S. anti-aging medicine
Highlights
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- Presents data on clinicians' and women's experiences with bioidentical hormones.
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- Places bioidentical hormones within history of controversy over hormone replacement.
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- Bioidentical hormones are given legitimacy through a discourse of the “natural”.
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- Bioidentical hormones reinforce the ethos of anti-aging medicine.
Abstract
In
2002, the Women's Health Initiative, a large-scale study of the safety
of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for women conducted in the United
States, released results suggesting that use of postmenopausal HRT
increased women's risks of stroke and breast cancer. In the years that
followed, as rates of HRT prescription fell, another hormonal therapy
rose in its wake: bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT).
Anti-aging clinicians, the primary prescribers of BHRT, tout it as a
safe and effective alternative to treat menopausal symptoms and,
moreover, as a preventative therapy for age-related diseases and
ailments. Through in-depth interviews with 31 U.S.-based anti-aging
clinicians and 25 female anti-aging patients, we analyze attitudes
towards BHRT. We illustrate how these attitudes reveal broader
contemporary values, discourses, and discomforts with menopause, aging,
and biomedicine. The attraction to and promise of BHRT is rooted in the
idea that it is a “natural” therapy. BHRT is given both biomedical and
embodied legitimacy by clinicians and patients because of its purported
ability to become part of the body's “natural” processes. The normative
assumption that “natural” is inherently “good” not only places BHRT
beyond reproach, but transforms its use into a health benefit. The
clinical approach of anti-aging providers also plays a role by
validating patients' embodied experiences and offering a “holistic”
solution to their symptoms, which anti-aging patients see as a striking
contrast to their experiences with conventional biomedical health care.
The perceived virtues of BHRT shed light on the rhetoric of anti-aging
medicine and a deeply complicated relationship between conventional
biomedicine, hormonal technologies, and women's bodies.
Keywords
- United States;
- Menopause;
- Hormone replacement therapy;
- Bioidentical hormones;
- Aging;
- Anti-aging;
- Biomedicine;
- Women's health
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
