Masculinidades, (im)potência e medicalização nos discursos dos profissionais de saúde

Abstract

In 1998, in the United States, the first pill for the treatment of erectile dysfunctions, Viagra®️, was approved. Since then, the repercussion of this medication has been significant, as well as we think about sex and sexuality and the relationships between men and women. In this regard, this master's thesis aims to analyze how the discourses of health professionals about masculinities and sexual impotence are imprinted on the practices of medicalization of sexuality. It is a qualitative research where the participants are health professionals selected through the “Snowball technique”. These participants were submitted to a sociodemographic questionnaire, the “Técnica de Associação Livre de Palavras (TALP - Carta de Marear)” and a semi-structured interview, all steps were carried out online. The interpretation of information was framed through the Theory of Social Representations, the Theory of Medicalization and Gender Studies, especially the Theory of Masculinity. To analyze the information, we followed the content analysis, classifying the results into semantic categories. We understand knowledge as a construction of the subject inseparable from the social and from relationships with others and objects. Thus, health professional's understandings are compelled by social representations of masculinity, leading to the medicalization of sexuality. We conclude that the value of culturally constructed beliefs and precepts in the daily communicational exchange about masculinity and being a man implies sexual impotence and the medicalization of sexuality.