2 research outputs found
Normalisation Versus Medicalisation of Sexual Disturbances During Menopause: A Qualitative Research in the Italian Context
Past research has found consistent correlations between menopause and
increase in sexual disturbances, but very little research has inquired into the attribution
of meanings to this change from the womens’ own perspectives and the role
of the negotiating between sexes in the social-construction of the problem. This
study aims to investigate how professionals, women diagnosed with hypoactive
sexual desire disorder and ordinary people, both men and women, signify this
phenomenon in the Italian context. Interviews were conducted by asking participants
whether or not they considered the decrease in sexual desire to be a problem,
and what this was dependent on. The analysis of the 146 participants’ answers
revealed that women with sexual deficit emphasized the need for treating the biological
changes of menopause; specialists considered both the gynecological and the
psychological components, while ordinary people seemed to ‘normalise’ the problem,
encoding it as the effect of menopause; they did not seem to be inclined to turn
the situation into a call for help, suggesting the importance of sharing the problem
within the relationship and underestimating the organic level of the question. The
negotiation between sexes seems to transform a sexual problem into normality