Uses of Testosterone and Redefinitions of Female Sexual Desire in Medical Practices in Brazil

• In Event: Hormones on the Move: Transnational Entanglements in the Everyday - I

Abstract

Recent technological interventions have led to new reflections about how gender and sexuality are materialized in different contexts. This article presents the results of a study conducted with doctors in Brazil about medical approaches and treatments related to female sexuality. The research methodology involved seeking out professionals mainly from the field of gynecology, but also from endocrinology and gerontology, who were interviewed because they specialize in treating sexual issues. According to these professionals, the most common “problem” among women has been the lack of sexual desire in the period around menopause. Following the current parameters of sexual medicine, they understand this process as being due to a decline in the production of hormones. Despite scientific and legal controversies, they employ testosterone replacement as treatment. Using the notion of ontonorms formulated by Annemarie Mol and the relational materialism approach, the work discusses how this type of pharmaceutical treatment has materialized female desire in terms of the absence or presence of testosterone, a hormone commonly conceived as masculine. The power of testosterone in the production of desire as well as the risks of virilization associated to its excess shape a reality in which female sexuality is therefore dependent on a substance that is always associated to the male.

Author

• Fabiola Rohden, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil