Most broadly, my research interests focus on the interplay between medicine and culture, namely, the technological and clinical applications of medical knowledge, the popularization of information about health and medicine, and the roles of gender in medicine. I am also interested in the distance between medical experts and lay people and how information is exchanged between these two groups.
My first book, On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950-1970, analyzes the development and subsequent impact of oral contraception on American society and culture during the 1950s and 1960s. It explores the evolving role of science and medicine in attempting to solve what were previously considered social problems within a gendered framework of sexual roles and reproductive responsibilities; the changing role of the popular media in conveying information about health and medicine; and the enduring power and authority of the medical and pharmaceutical establishments, in spite of widespread challenges from feminist critics, consumer groups, governmental regulators, and the press.
My second book, The Estrogen Elixir: A History of Hormone Replacement Therapy in America, tells the story of the rise and fall, and rise again and fall again of estrogen and its promise to forestall the diseases of aging and to maintain youthfulness in women. The Premarin brand of estrogen was on the market for 50 years as a treatment for menopause before becoming the most prescribed drug in America. Just ten years later, Premarin fell off its pedestal when a government-funded investigation reported that it (and its sister product Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin) increased the risk of heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, and breast cancer. But the story of estrogen neither begins in 1942 with FDA approval nor ends with the findings of this study in 2002. Its roots date back to the 19th century, and its life as a medical therapy continues today. The Estrogen Elixir is the first complete history of this long-lived and controversial drug.
Three themes guide this book’s explanation of the development, spread, and shifting fortunes of hormone replacement therapy in America. The first concerns the authority of medical science in American life and explores how the relationship between science and society shaped the dissemination and reception of HRT. The second theme considers the significance of the medicalization of menopause and aging as estrogen fell in and out of favor. The third theme deals with the varying meanings of and frameworks for aging in America and locates HRT in the cultural context of changing expectations and roles for older women in American society. By investigating interactions among scientists, physicians, drug companies, government agencies, feminist health activists, the media, and the public on the subjects of menopause, aging, and HRT during the 20th century and into the 21st, The Estrogen Elixir sheds historical light on one of the most pressing debates in medicine today.
My current research builds on my work on hormone replacement therapy in America. I am interested in hormone replacement as a therapy for aging men, and I have begun to do research and to write articles on this subject. This study fits into contemporary efforts to expand gender studies to include men’s experiences along with those of women. By exploring the differential reductionism of hormones and aging bodies according to gender, I hope to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the role of gender in the history of medicine.
Future projects include a history of hormones in American science, commerce, and culture in the 20th century and a history of the contraceptive implant, Norplant.
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