ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors describe the concept of "anticipatory medicalization" and a particular example as another mode of increasing medicalization. They use the example of the rise of "preconception care" in medicine, or the idea of caring for non-pregnant women with the purpose of alleviating any risks to pregnancies. Anticipatory medicalization revolves around the expectation of a medical diagnosis or medical outcome; it depends not on a present condition, but rather on putative potential problems. Health risks may or may not be visible or detectable, but in the framework of anticipatory medicalization, the clinical concern is about risks. Anticipatory medicalization is related to conceptions in medical sociology. Scholars have paid attention to ways in which medicalization has expanded through increased focus on prediction, predisposition, and proto-disease. Anticipatory medicalization refers to measurable forms of risk as well as any demonstrable effects on subjective feelings of risk.
