![\"genders](\"http:\/\/www.revistahcsm.coc.fiocruz.br\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/genders-2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe pharmaceutical industry has benefited enormously from this \u201chormonal approach\u201d. In the past decades we saw the launching of miraculous substances. Schering laboratories, for example, developed a formula to alleviate the symptoms of ‘androgen deficiency of the aging male’. According to its advertising campaign, a disorder called ‘andropause’ is linked to decreased testosterone production after the age of 40, which can possibly lead to loss of libido, loss of energy and depression. Another campaign promoted the drug Intrinsa, which Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals has announced as the “female Viagra”. The substance promises to boost the libido of menopausal women. Once again, the substance in question is testosterone, a hormone linked to sexual desire.<\/p>\n
The discussion about the hormonal body has been much more focused on women. This discussion involves female physiology and how hormonal transformations, and the emotional instability that comes with it, govern their lives. Phenomena like ‘pre-menstrual stress’ or changes during menopause have been used to explain different types of behavior, in addition to feeding a huge industry for treating ‘female troubles’.<\/p>\n
This hormonal and physic definition of sex helps determining gender by hormones. It defines male and female behaviors. According to this article, what we note in the discourse on ovaries and hormones is not only a description of their function within the female body but a treatise on how women behave as a function of their ovaries and hormones.<\/p>\n
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* Fab\u00edola Rhoden is assistant professor of the Anthropology Department of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and associated researcher at the The Latin-American Center on Sexuality and Human Rights (CLAM).<\/p>\n
See Full article: Rohden, Fab\u00edola,\u00a0\u201cThe reign of hormones and the construction of gender differences.<\/a>”\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>\u00a0[online]. 2008, vol.15, suppl., pp. 133-152.\u201d<\/p>\n For other related articles in English, Spanish and Portuguese, see:<\/p>\n Felitti, Karina.\u00a0\u201cParir\u00e1s sin dolor:\u00a0poder m\u00e9dico, g\u00e9nero y pol\u00edtica en las nuevas formas de atenci\u00f3n del parto en la Argentina (1960-1980)<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>, Dic 2011, vol.18, suppl.1, p.113-129.<\/p>\n Engel, Magali Gouveia.\u00a0\u201cForbidden sexualities:\u00a0madness and the male\u00a0gender<\/a>.”\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>, 2008, vol.15, p.173-190.<\/p>\n Pereira, Audrey Vidal, Rotenberg, L\u00facia and Oliveira, Simone Santos.\u00a0 \u201cRela\u00e7\u00f5es de g\u00eanero e interdepend\u00eancias: reflex\u00f5es a partir de mudan\u00e7as na configura\u00e7\u00e3o hospitalar<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>, Set 2013, vol.20, no.3, p.1007-1024.<\/p>\n Silva, Marinete dos Santos.\u00a0\u201cReprodu\u00e7\u00e3o, sexualidade e poder:\u00a0as lutas e disputas em torno do aborto e da contracep\u00e7\u00e3o no Rio de Janeiro, 1890-1930<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>, Dez 2012, vol.19, no.4, p.1241-1254.<\/p>\n Goldenberg, Mirian.\u00a0\u201cO g\u00eanero das travestis:\u00a0corpo e sexualidade na cultura brasileira<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>, Dez 2009, vol.16, no.4, p.1115-1119.<\/p>\n