Confrontation in the climacteric

Abstract

Why is an increasing number of women dissatisfied with their doctors' help in their climacteric? Why do so many object to hormone replacement therapy (HRT)? Why do they generally feel it is not 'natural'? Though many object to getting old, want to continue flaunting their 'eternal youth', many more, women and men, embrace retirement, wish to rest and slow down. There is no mistaking these extremes, for while the first grasp at every possible treatment, the last are but seldom medically seen. It is the middle majority, their demands, censure, disapproval, even open confrontation with those who try to help them which is difficult to understand. This paper briefly reviews the manner in which Western climacteric women have, during two hundred, but mainly last fifty, years confronted their world: their protests at societal attitudes, their private marital conflicts, their demands of doctors and, finally, their present criticism of them. It also pays detailed attention to the key concept of 'natural' treatment. Finally it suggests that much of present climacteric confrontation is a displacement activity, born of concurrent conflicting desires for both youth and retirement, rather than aimed specifically at doctors.