Aging & Social Change: Fourteenth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Americans are increasingly using medication to manage numerous aspects of their lives, often medicating for years or decades at a time. While this certainly provides relief from chronic illness and other medical benefits, for some users it also raises concerns about what aspects of their identities or behavior are authentic to them and which are representative of a “medicated self.” Given the significance of self-exploration, self-discovery and self-knowledge in the transition to adulthood, how does the relationship between medication and authenticity differ for individuals across the life course? I focus on the case of hormonal contraception and menopause hormone therapies to answer this questions. Drawing on 50 interviews with women ages 22-65, I find women defined authenticity and the role of medicine to achieving authenticity differently at different life stages. Women in emerging adulthood reflected beliefs that an authentic, true self was something that might only be known without interference from medication or other external factors. Hormonal contraception was thus painted as a barrier to authenticity and certain forms of valuable self-knowledge. Among women in perimenopause and menopause, hormone therapies were viewed as an opportunity for women to feel more like their authentic selves; menopause was characterized as a departure from a prior self and hormone therapies offered a means of maintaining the version of themselves and their life women had come to know. These findings offer insight into how conceptions of the authentic self evolve as women age, and highlight the importance of authenticity in shaping women’s medication choices.