Report on the conference on 'Men, Women, and Medicine: A New View of the Biology of Sex/Gender Differences and Aging' held in Berlin, 24–26th February 2006

The first world wide symposium on the topic of gender-specific medicine provided the latest research on differences in sex and/or gender in medicine and medical care. The presentations ranged beyond the topic of reproduction to encompass the entire human organism. This report critically reviews three issues that emerged during the Conference: gender mainstreaming, the concept of sex/gender differences and the issue of men's health. It suggests that the interdisciplinary concept of gender-specific medicine has to be mirrored by the integration of social and cultural studies into medical research and practice

A 'little world of your own': stigma, gender and narratives of venereal disease contact tracing

As in other countries, in order to protect the public from venereal disease (syphilis and gonorrhoea), contact tracing in New Zealand has been a public health strategy since the mid-20th century. So far, scholars have predominantly focused on the aspect of control of the cases traced. Based on a rare interview with a female contact tracer, together with a range of archival material, this article aims to expand the scholarship by focusing on the tracer instead of the patient. Using Erving Goffman's original concept of 'courtesy stigma', the article will show that his idea can be nuanced to take into account contact tracers and the ways in which this stigma can be refracted through gender. Working as a tracer had a distinct impact on her life and possibly even her marital status, which were compromised by secrecy, stigma, morality and the demands of public health policies — aspects that were, paradoxically, quite similar to those she traced. The courtesy stigma that contact tracers for venereal disease acquired limited their professional options, as well as isolated them in the non-stigmatized social world

Alter(n), Gender, Körper: Neue Verbindungen für die zeithistorische Forschung

Es ist erst einige Jahre her, da erinnerte ein überdimensionales, begehbares Prostatamodell Männer an die Wichtigkeit der Krebsvorsorge. Eine „Urolisken“- Skulptur, die in verschiedenen deutschen Städten aufgestellt wurde, hatte dasselbe Ziel. Beide Aktionen zeigen: Alternde Männer werden derzeit in ihrer Körperlichkeit verstärkt sichtbar. Für alternde Frauen könnte man Ähnliches feststellen.1 Dies war längst nicht immer so. Wer die Situation alter Männer mit Prostatakarzinom als Familienväter und -versorger im frühen 20. Jahrhundert nachzuzeichnen versucht, stößt schnell an Grenzen, was mit der schwierigen Quellenlage zu tun hat. Mediziner hatten für diese Patienten wenig Handlungsspielraum, Behandlungsmethoden reduzierten sich oftmals auf Palliation, und für die Öffentlichkeit blieben die Krankheitsverläufe dieser Männer ohnehin meist unsichtbar. Im Gegensatz dazu gibt es im späten 20. und beginnenden 21. Jahrhundert eine öffentliche Zurschaustellung