Paper short abstract:

The heightened health risk and anticipation discourse is a form of biosocial knowledge in medicalization of menopause in Turkey, as well as in other places. In the process, having the correct medical knowledge became a moral responsibility especially for women, determining a certain local biology.

Paper long abstract:

Theories of medicalization that became a popular subject in social sciences starting from the 1960s (Conrad 2007), gave way to that of biomedicalization in the 21st century (Clarke et al. 2003). Biomedicalization includes a heightened sense of anticipation of possible health risks, and optimization of life as a personal responsibility. These new ways of governing life and the biosocial have links to neoliberal ideas of individualization, and they became part of the popular medical discourse in Turkey starting from 1990s. Personal responsibility in health discourse disseminated mainly through mass media in health columns and TV shows in the last twenty years. Women constitute the main audience and consumers of this discourse, where anticipation is tied to the idea of responsibility.

In this paper, I will discuss this heightened health risk and anticipation discourse as a form of determining the biosocial through the example of menopause in Turkey. I use the concept of anticipation (Adams et al. 2009) to analyze the transformation from menopause as an "invisible" life period to descriptions of a conditional "second spring." In the popular medical narratives of menopause, osteoporosis, marital infidelity, freedom from menses and contraception, and anxieties about taking hormones are among things to be anticipated in menopause for women. I argue that the emphasis on anticipation and "correct" medical knowledge turns a particular way of living into a moral responsibility especially for women, which obscures the wider issues of social justice and gendered labor of care.