109 - Thematic Session. The Medicalization and Demedicalization of Sexuality

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Over the last several decades, cultural battles over sexuality increasingly have been fought in the health care realm. Drug manufacturers, doctors, consumers, and others now “sell” medical diagnoses such as Testosterone Deficit Syndrome and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder and medical interventions such as HPV vaccination and circumcision. Others, meanwhile, fight to demedicalize these and other behaviors and conditions. This panel explores the sources, nature, and consequences of the medicalization and demedicalization of sexuality.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Rose Weitz, Arizona State University

Presider

• Ophra Leyser-Whalen, University of Texas-El Paso

Individual Presentations

• The Proliferation of Sexual Health: Beyond Medicalization? - Steven Epstein, Northwestern University

• The Sexualization and Desexualization of Cancer Risk and Prevention - Laura Mamo, San Francisco State University

• Sex Hormones, Aging, and the Medicalization of Menopausal Women - Jennifer R Fishman, McGill University