Clinicians should consider the effect of bodily metaphors when discussing contraceptive options
Walker, S.
Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care 39(2): 152
2013
ISSN/ISBN: 2045-2098 PMID: 23493602 DOI: 10.1136/jfprhc-2012-100561Document Number: 567146
The way in which women imagine their own bodies, and the metaphors upon which they draw, may affect their attitudes towards and willingness to use certain methods of contraception. Biomedical science draws upon an implicitly mechanistic metaphor, which views the human body as a complex machine with purely utilitarian functions. This metaphor is reflected in medical education, clinical discourse and in patient information resources. I have published a research article which suggests that a minority of women, who access contraceptive services, may draw upon an alternative ‘natural’ bodily metaphor, which views the body as an entity firmly embedded in the wider ecology, with quasi-spiritual status, whose functions ought not to be disrupted by technological interventions. The disruption to the menstrual cycle, and other bodily rhythms, caused by hormonal methods of contraception, provoked particular anxiety for women who drew upon this bodily metaphor, to.