Menopause and Historical Constructions of Cancer Risk

Abstract

This paper explores the association between menopause and cancer over the past 250 years in relation to the disease model of menopause. Relying primarily upon medical literature produced in Great Britain, the United States, and Canada, it shows how this association evolved from traditional humoral theory; how it was sustained during the 19th century as part of a larger vision of female vulnerability at midlife countered, partially and temporarily, by a more optimistic outlook at the beginning of the 20th century; and how, over the past 80 years, the debate over cancer risk at menopause was intertwined with the vacillating fortunes of the disease model and its normalization of hormone replacement therapy.