ABSTRACT
In this chapter a sociological rather than a medical perspective on menstruation is outlined. It will be argued that the medical perspective summarized in chapter 1 is vulnerable to criticism on at least two important counts: first, whilst its advocates generally assert or assume it has legitimacy because of its foundations in science, these foundations are in fact extremely shaky; and second, medicine, like all other major social institutions in patriarchal societies, reflects patriarchal values in both its theory and its practice. The medical perspective on menstruation and menstrual disorders, then, is neither wholly scientific nor wholly neutral in relation to social conventions or mores. This is not to say, of course, either that physicians enjoy no autonomy at all or that they are collectively involved in some kind of conspiracy against women.
