Is puberty medicalised?

Puberty has different meanings and responsibilities attached in different cultures. ‘In some cultures as such as our own, adolescence is a long period, over a decade in which the individual has responsibilities and privileges different from those of child hood or full adult hood.’ (Bancroft and Reinsich, 1990)

Consumer culture and commercial interest in the body to keep it thin, fit and cosmetically appealing – a ‘perfect body’ (Shilling, 2003). This creates an increased pressure of young adults going through puberty for their body to grow a certain way and if not it causes major insecurities. The rise of social media and the recent exposure of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian exposing her full body can impact the way young women feel their bodies should look, although these type of ‘celebrities’ spend and earn fortunes promoting surgery, quick fix diets and fad exercise programmes which sell to this ages group in particularly taking advantage of the vulnerability and pressure which is forced onto this group. Postman (2004) Suggests that the rise of ‘electronic devices’ such as TV’s and social media produces 3 stages of life. These are infancy, senility and ‘the adult child’.

Pharmaceutical industries create a large profit from puberty. Often they supply medication to lower high levels of sex hormones to stop sexual development progressing which is available in the UK. (Roberts, 2015) Lupron is what one of the medications prescribes is branded as. The NHS states that this type of medication can cause problems in later life such as individuals developing weak bones.

 Medicalisation of puberty has been around for decades. In the 1940s young women were prescribed oestrogen to stop them growing. (Lee and Howell, 2006) By doing this, a norm was created that women should not be tall, and that people consider tallness to be an unattractive trait. This links to Illich’s theory which medicine creates a norm and is used to prevent ‘deviant’ bodies which do not fit society’s idea of fitting in.