Thalassemic Women’s Biographical Trajectory: Retracing Gender Inequalities in Health Policies

Scientific reductionism has made sure that the biologica phenomena were abstracted from the social and cultural contexts in which they occur. As a result, institutions of medicine and patient care processes have not taken into account the social and cultural determinants of the illness, therefore concealing a Western and masculine norm. Only recently, gender studies have managed to claim importance of the gender in the process of medical practices capable of dealing with diverse health cultures. This chapter proposes further reflections on gender inequalities in health policy for the care and management of thalassemia, taking into account of the differences in health needs, and gendered experience and meanings of illness. It will analyze the medicalization of the female body in the thalassemia experience.