Media as agents that facilitate the medicalization of life: the example of andropause
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35669/revistadecomunicacionysalud.2014.4(1).49-67Keywords:
Journalism; medicalization; andropause; aging; sexuality; marketingAbstract
Trough the phenomenon of medicalization, many processes previously beyond the jurisdiction of medicine has come to be explained and treated by doctors. One of them is the natural process of aging, and within it the decline in male activity –principally sexual. Traditionally known as andropause and considered as a syndrome caused by a lack of testosterone, there have been moments in history when it seemed to have almost disappeared from medical debate. However, with the boom of sexual drugs, the iede of andropause has reappeared, despite the accumulated scientific evidence which has fed doubt about this concept within the past 15 years.
Information about health helps to normalize social processes which have led certain problems to be considered as part of the medicine field. Andropause has not been immune to this phenomenon. Through the analysis of news articles published in the Spanish press about andropause and the sexuality of the aging male, some examples are described in this essay to show how the media can influence in the medicalization of this process. In this regard the influence of lobbies will be analyzed, through the funding of media groups and as a result of conflicts of interest among media and communication professionals when selecting information sources and content, as well as the role of news agencies and press associations.
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References
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Barsky, Arthur J.; Borus, Jonathan F. (1995). Somatization and medicalization in the era of managed care. Journal of the American. Medical Association. Vol 274, nº 24, pp. 1931-1934.
Bhasin, S. ; Cunningham, G. R. ; Hayes, F. J. ; Matsumoto, A. M. ; Snyder, P. J. y Swerdloff, R. S. (2010). Testosterone therapy in men with androgen deficiency syndromes: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Vol. 95, pp. 2536-2559.
Broom, Dorothy H. y Woodward, Roslyn V. (1996). Medicalisation reconsidered: toward a collaborative approach to care. Sociology of Health & Illness. Vol. 18, nº 3, pp. 357- 378.
Brown-Séquard, Charles. (1889). Effects produced on man by subcutaneous injections of a liquid obtained from the testicles of animals. The Lancet. Vol. 2, pp. 105-107.
Conrad, Peter. (2007). The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Conrad, Peter. (1992). Medicalization and social control. Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 18; pp. 209-232.
Conrad, Peter, y Leiter, Valerie. (2004). Medicalization, markets and consumers. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Vol 45 (Extra Issue), pp. 158–176.
Conrad, Peter; Mackie Thomas y Mehrotra, Ateev. (2010). Estimating the costs of medicalization. Social Science & Medicine. Vol. 70, nº 12, pp. 1943-1947.
El País. (1987) Manual de estilo. Disponible en: http://blogs.elpais.com/files/manual-de-estilo-de-el-pa%C3%ADs.pdf. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
Elías, Carlos. (2002). Los suplementos especializados como guetos de noticias en la prensa generalista: el caso de los científicos y sanitarios. Ámbitos. Nº 9-10, pp. 171- 186. Disponible en: http://grupo.us.es/grehcco/ambitos09-10/elias.pdf. Recuperado el 12 de Julio de 2013.
Gérvas, Juan; Gavilán, Enrique y Gorricho, Javier. (2012). Medicalización del envejecimiento: síndrome por déficit de testosterona. Boletín de Información Terapéutica de Navarra. Vol. 20, nº 4, pp. 1-8. Disponible en http://www.navarra.es/NR/ rdonlyres/0220315B-65F6-44DA-A97A-7B1810DD2B39/237520/Bit_v20n5.pdf. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
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Gorricho, Javier; Gavilán, Enrique y Gérvas, Juan. (2012). Marketing, not evidence based arguments, has probably increased testosterone prescribing. British Medical Journal. Vol. 345, pp. e6905.
Greenhalgh, Trisha y Wessely, Simon. (2004). ‘Health for me’: a sociocultural analysis of healthism in the middle classes. British Medical Bulletin. Vol. 69, nº 1, pp. 197–213.
Groopman, Jerome. (2002) Hormones for men. Is male menopause a question of medicine or of marketing? New Yorker. Disponible en: http://www.newyorker.com/ archive/2002/07/29/020729fa_fact. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
Hall, Danika; Jones, Sandra e Iverson, Don. (2011). Disease awareness advertising: women’s intentions following exposure. Australian Family Physician. Vol. 40, nº 3, pp. 143-147.
Handelsman, David J. (2012) Pharmacoepidemiology of testosterone prescribing in Australia, 1992–2010. Medical Journal of Australia. Vol. 196, nº 10, pp. 642-645.
Illich, Ivan. (1975). Némesis médica: la expropiación de la salud. Barcelona: Barral Editores.
Jong, Geert W.; Stricker, Bruno H. y Sturkenboom, Miriam C. (2004). Marketing in the lay media and prescriptions of terbinafine in primary care: Dutch cohort study. British Medical Journal. Vol. 328, nº 7445, p. 931.
Khan, Arnold, (2005). Regaining lost youth: the controversial and colourful beginnings of hormone replacement therapy in aging. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences. Vol. 60, nº 2, pp. 142-147.
Limasa, Servicios de Limpieza Integral de Málaga III, SA. (2011). Boletín informativo Septiembre, nº 1. Disponible en: http://www.limasa3.es/sites/default/files/Boletin%20Informativo%20Limasa%20-%20Septiembre%202011.pdf. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
Marañón, Gregorio. (1937). Climaterio de la mujer y del hombre. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.
Martín-Llaguno, Marta y Álvarez-Dardet, Carlos. (2010). La retirada de una campaña publicitaria para promoción de la vacuna tetravalente del virus del papiloma humano en España. Gaceta Sanitaria. Vol. 24, nº1, pp. 75-77.
Morales, A.; Spevack, M.; Emerson, L.; Kuzmarov, I.; Casey, R.; Black, A. y Tremblay, R. (2007). Adding to the controversy: pitfalls in the diagnosis of testosterone deficiency syndromes with questionnaires and biochemistry. Aging Male. Vol. 10, nº 2, pp. 57-65.
Morley, J. E.; Charlton, E.; Patrick, P.; Kaiser, F. E.; Cadeau, P.; McCready, D. y Perry, H. M. (2000). Validation of a screening questionnaire for androgen deficiency in aging males. Metabolism. Vol 49, nº 9, pp. 1239-1242.
Null, Garry; Feldman, Martin; Rasio, Debora y Dean, Carolyn. (2010). Death by medicine. Mount Jackson: Praktikos Books.
Parens Erik. (2013). On good and bad forms of medicalization. Bioethics. Vol. 27, nº 1, pp. 28-35.
Pérez Oliva, Milagros. (2009). Expectativas de salud en la sociedad mediática global. Humanidades Médicas. Diciembre, nº45.
Pérez Oliva, Milagros. (2010). Avances médicos con intereses ocultos. El País. 17 Enero.
Pérez Oliva, Milagros. Periodismo de calidad en tiempos de Internet. En: de Semir, Vladimir y Revuelta, Gema. (2012). El periodismo biomédico en la era 2.0. Cuadernos de la Fundación Dr. Esteve, nº 25. Barcelona: Fundación Dr. Antonio Esteve.
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Rossouw, J. E.; Anderson, G. L.; Prentice, R. L.; LaCroix, A. Z.; Kooperberg, C.; Stefanick, M. L., et al. (2002). Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: principal results From the Women’s Health Initiative randomized controlled trial. Journal of American Medical Association. Vol. 288, nº 3, pp. 321- 333.
Ruíz-Cantero, María T. y Cambronero-Saiz, Belén. (2011). La metamorfosis de la salud: invención de enfermedades y estrategias de comunicación. Gaceta Sanitaria. Vol. 25, nº 3, pp. 179-181.
Sáinz Corada, E. (2011). Pros y contras del abordaje del SDT. Gaceta Médica. Disponible en http://www.gacetamedica.com/gaceta/articulo.aspx?idart=534155&idcat=703 &tipo=2
Tancredi, A.; Reginster, J. Y.; Schleich, F.; Pire, G.; Maassen, P.; Luyckx, F. y Legros, J. J. (2004). Interest of the Androgen Deficiency in Aging Males (ADAM) questionnaire for the identification of hypogonadism in elderly community-dwelling male volunteers. European Journal of Endocrinology. Vol. 151, nº 3, pp. 355-360.
Watkins, Elizabeth S. (2008). Medicine, masculinity, and the disappearance of male menopause in the 1950s. Social History of Medicine. Vol. 21, nº 2, pp. 329-344.
Watt, Graham. (2002). The inverse care law today. The Lancet. Vol. 360, pp. 252–254.
White, Alicia. (2009). How to read health news. Disponible en: http://www.nhs.uk/news/ Pages/Howtoreadarticlesabouthealthandhealthcare.aspx. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
Wild, D.; Grove, A.; Martin, M.; Eremenco, S.; McElroy, S.; Verjee-Lorenz, A. y Erikson, P. (2005). Principles of Good Practice for the Translation and Cultural Adaptation Process for Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) Measures: Report of the ISPOR Task Force for Translation and Cultural Adaptation. Value in Health. Vol. 8, nº 2, pp. 94-104.
Wu, F. C.; Tajar, A.; Beynon, J. M.; Pye, S. R.; Silman, A. J.; Finn, J. D.; et al. (2010). Identification of late-onset hypogonadism in middle-aged and elderly men. New England Journal of Medicine. Vol. 363, nº 2, pp. 123-135.
Association of Health Care Journalists. Statement of Principles of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Disponible en: http://healthjournalism.org/secondarypage-details.php?id=56. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
Ballard, Karen; Elston, Mary A. (2005). Medicalisation: A multi-dimensional concept. Social Theory & Health. Vol. 3, nº3, pp. 228–241.
Barsky, Arthur J.; Borus, Jonathan F. (1995). Somatization and medicalization in the era of managed care. Journal of the American. Medical Association. Vol 274, nº 24, pp. 1931-1934.
Bhasin, S. ; Cunningham, G. R. ; Hayes, F. J. ; Matsumoto, A. M. ; Snyder, P. J. y Swerdloff, R. S. (2010). Testosterone therapy in men with androgen deficiency syndromes: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Vol. 95, pp. 2536-2559.
Broom, Dorothy H. y Woodward, Roslyn V. (1996). Medicalisation reconsidered: toward a collaborative approach to care. Sociology of Health & Illness. Vol. 18, nº 3, pp. 357- 378.
Brown-Séquard, Charles. (1889). Effects produced on man by subcutaneous injections of a liquid obtained from the testicles of animals. The Lancet. Vol. 2, pp. 105-107.
Conrad, Peter. (2007). The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Conrad, Peter. (1992). Medicalization and social control. Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 18; pp. 209-232.
Conrad, Peter, y Leiter, Valerie. (2004). Medicalization, markets and consumers. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Vol 45 (Extra Issue), pp. 158–176.
Conrad, Peter; Mackie Thomas y Mehrotra, Ateev. (2010). Estimating the costs of medicalization. Social Science & Medicine. Vol. 70, nº 12, pp. 1943-1947.
El País. (1987) Manual de estilo. Disponible en: http://blogs.elpais.com/files/manual-de-estilo-de-el-pa%C3%ADs.pdf. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
Elías, Carlos. (2002). Los suplementos especializados como guetos de noticias en la prensa generalista: el caso de los científicos y sanitarios. Ámbitos. Nº 9-10, pp. 171- 186. Disponible en: http://grupo.us.es/grehcco/ambitos09-10/elias.pdf. Recuperado el 12 de Julio de 2013.
Gérvas, Juan; Gavilán, Enrique y Gorricho, Javier. (2012). Medicalización del envejecimiento: síndrome por déficit de testosterona. Boletín de Información Terapéutica de Navarra. Vol. 20, nº 4, pp. 1-8. Disponible en http://www.navarra.es/NR/ rdonlyres/0220315B-65F6-44DA-A97A-7B1810DD2B39/237520/Bit_v20n5.pdf. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
Gómez Martín, Paz. ¿Crisis sanitarias o crisis mediáticas? En: de Semir, Vladimir y Revuelta, Gema. (2012). El periodismo biomédico en la era 2.0. Cuadernos de la Fundación Dr. Esteve, nº 25. Barcelona: Fundación Dr. Antonio Esteve.
Gorricho, Javier; Gavilán, Enrique y Gérvas, Juan. (2012). Marketing, not evidence based arguments, has probably increased testosterone prescribing. British Medical Journal. Vol. 345, pp. e6905.
Greenhalgh, Trisha y Wessely, Simon. (2004). ‘Health for me’: a sociocultural analysis of healthism in the middle classes. British Medical Bulletin. Vol. 69, nº 1, pp. 197–213.
Groopman, Jerome. (2002) Hormones for men. Is male menopause a question of medicine or of marketing? New Yorker. Disponible en: http://www.newyorker.com/ archive/2002/07/29/020729fa_fact. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
Hall, Danika; Jones, Sandra e Iverson, Don. (2011). Disease awareness advertising: women’s intentions following exposure. Australian Family Physician. Vol. 40, nº 3, pp. 143-147.
Handelsman, David J. (2012) Pharmacoepidemiology of testosterone prescribing in Australia, 1992–2010. Medical Journal of Australia. Vol. 196, nº 10, pp. 642-645.
Illich, Ivan. (1975). Némesis médica: la expropiación de la salud. Barcelona: Barral Editores.
Jong, Geert W.; Stricker, Bruno H. y Sturkenboom, Miriam C. (2004). Marketing in the lay media and prescriptions of terbinafine in primary care: Dutch cohort study. British Medical Journal. Vol. 328, nº 7445, p. 931.
Khan, Arnold, (2005). Regaining lost youth: the controversial and colourful beginnings of hormone replacement therapy in aging. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences. Vol. 60, nº 2, pp. 142-147.
Limasa, Servicios de Limpieza Integral de Málaga III, SA. (2011). Boletín informativo Septiembre, nº 1. Disponible en: http://www.limasa3.es/sites/default/files/Boletin%20Informativo%20Limasa%20-%20Septiembre%202011.pdf. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
Marañón, Gregorio. (1937). Climaterio de la mujer y del hombre. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.
Martín-Llaguno, Marta y Álvarez-Dardet, Carlos. (2010). La retirada de una campaña publicitaria para promoción de la vacuna tetravalente del virus del papiloma humano en España. Gaceta Sanitaria. Vol. 24, nº1, pp. 75-77.
Morales, A.; Spevack, M.; Emerson, L.; Kuzmarov, I.; Casey, R.; Black, A. y Tremblay, R. (2007). Adding to the controversy: pitfalls in the diagnosis of testosterone deficiency syndromes with questionnaires and biochemistry. Aging Male. Vol. 10, nº 2, pp. 57-65.
Morley, J. E.; Charlton, E.; Patrick, P.; Kaiser, F. E.; Cadeau, P.; McCready, D. y Perry, H. M. (2000). Validation of a screening questionnaire for androgen deficiency in aging males. Metabolism. Vol 49, nº 9, pp. 1239-1242.
Null, Garry; Feldman, Martin; Rasio, Debora y Dean, Carolyn. (2010). Death by medicine. Mount Jackson: Praktikos Books.
Parens Erik. (2013). On good and bad forms of medicalization. Bioethics. Vol. 27, nº 1, pp. 28-35.
Pérez Oliva, Milagros. (2009). Expectativas de salud en la sociedad mediática global. Humanidades Médicas. Diciembre, nº45.
Pérez Oliva, Milagros. (2010). Avances médicos con intereses ocultos. El País. 17 Enero.
Pérez Oliva, Milagros. Periodismo de calidad en tiempos de Internet. En: de Semir, Vladimir y Revuelta, Gema. (2012). El periodismo biomédico en la era 2.0. Cuadernos de la Fundación Dr. Esteve, nº 25. Barcelona: Fundación Dr. Antonio Esteve.
PRNoticias, Redacción. (2103). Asamblea General de ANIS: El G20 sanitario arremete contra la gestión de la anterior junta. PRNoticias, 17 Junio. Disponible en: http://www. prnoticias.com/index.php/salud/762/20122481. Recuperado el 12 de Julio de 2013.
Rossouw, J. E.; Anderson, G. L.; Prentice, R. L.; LaCroix, A. Z.; Kooperberg, C.; Stefanick, M. L., et al. (2002). Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: principal results From the Women’s Health Initiative randomized controlled trial. Journal of American Medical Association. Vol. 288, nº 3, pp. 321- 333.
Ruíz-Cantero, María T. y Cambronero-Saiz, Belén. (2011). La metamorfosis de la salud: invención de enfermedades y estrategias de comunicación. Gaceta Sanitaria. Vol. 25, nº 3, pp. 179-181.
Sáinz Corada, E. (2011). Pros y contras del abordaje del SDT. Gaceta Médica. Disponible en http://www.gacetamedica.com/gaceta/articulo.aspx?idart=534155&idcat=703 &tipo=2
Tancredi, A.; Reginster, J. Y.; Schleich, F.; Pire, G.; Maassen, P.; Luyckx, F. y Legros, J. J. (2004). Interest of the Androgen Deficiency in Aging Males (ADAM) questionnaire for the identification of hypogonadism in elderly community-dwelling male volunteers. European Journal of Endocrinology. Vol. 151, nº 3, pp. 355-360.
Watkins, Elizabeth S. (2008). Medicine, masculinity, and the disappearance of male menopause in the 1950s. Social History of Medicine. Vol. 21, nº 2, pp. 329-344.
Watt, Graham. (2002). The inverse care law today. The Lancet. Vol. 360, pp. 252–254.
White, Alicia. (2009). How to read health news. Disponible en: http://www.nhs.uk/news/ Pages/Howtoreadarticlesabouthealthandhealthcare.aspx. Recuperado el 12 de Junio de 2013.
Wild, D.; Grove, A.; Martin, M.; Eremenco, S.; McElroy, S.; Verjee-Lorenz, A. y Erikson, P. (2005). Principles of Good Practice for the Translation and Cultural Adaptation Process for Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) Measures: Report of the ISPOR Task Force for Translation and Cultural Adaptation. Value in Health. Vol. 8, nº 2, pp. 94-104.
Wu, F. C.; Tajar, A.; Beynon, J. M.; Pye, S. R.; Silman, A. J.; Finn, J. D.; et al. (2010). Identification of late-onset hypogonadism in middle-aged and elderly men. New England Journal of Medicine. Vol. 363, nº 2, pp. 123-135.
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Gavilán, Enrique, and Ainhoa Iriberri. 2014. “Media as agents that facilitate the medicalization of life: the example of andropause”. Revista de Comunicación y Salud 4 (1):49-67. https://doi.org/10.35669/revistadecomunicacionysalud.2014.4(1).49-67.
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