Medicalization of gender inequalities: a feminist response from a health service

Abstract

This article aims to report the experience developed in a neighborhood of Montevideo (Uruguay) between 2016 and 2020 from a health service. This article is developed with the general objective of reflecting on the medicalization of gender inequalities in women's health care. The specific objectives are to analyze the impact of gender as a social determinant of health, describe frequent situations of medicalization of gender inequalities and share an alternative experience from health care to address the impact of health inequalities on the health of women. As a proposal to work on gender discomforts that lead to health consultations, this proposal seeks to discourage pathologizing interventions of gender discomforts and generate a therapeutic strategy based on working on the use of space and the use of time. This experience is a path for healing among women, believing that contact with the health care team can generate an opportunity for an empowerment process through time/space, discouraging the medicalization of gender inequalities.