Menorrhagia in general practice -- disease or illness

Norma O'Flynn and Nicky Britten

Social Science & Medicine, 2000, vol. 50, issue 5, 651-661

Abstract: Menorrhagia is a common presentation in primary care. The gynaecological literature defines menorrhagia, as the loss of 80Â ml or more of blood per period and guidelines for treatment are based on this definition. There is extensive evidence that the majority of women who complain of heavy bleeding do not fit the medical definition. We interviewed women presenting with menorrhagia to explore their perceptions and their initial interaction with the medical profession. A distinct illness model emerged. Women had a precise understanding of their complaint, so that a change in her cycle was indicative of a problem to many women, without reference to outside criteria. Women attached particular importance to how they felt and to their ability to function and they rejected the medical emphasis on blood loss evaluation. Many women were dissatisfied with the consultation and experienced doctors as being dismissive of their problem. They were seeking an explanation for why their periods had changed and had concerns that related to their understanding of menstrual bleeding. Interviewees were unsure whether period problems could be described as illness, and what range of disturbance was normal. It is suggested that the disease model of menorrhagia is not relevant to the majority of women with this complaint. It is proposed that the disease model be replaced with illness models.

Keywords: Menorrhagia; Disease; Illness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(99)00318-4
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:50:y:2000:i:5:p:651-661

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().