Útero, Psiquis and climatery: an approach since the anthropological endocrinology

Abstract

The female gonadal cycle has been ancestrally linked to traits of an emotional and mutable mood, partly attributed to moon phases. This would pave the way along centuries to consider menstruation as something impure and, in the western civilization, even evil (note sexualization of sin in Christian culture). In this context and until the pathophysiology of menopause was approached with a scientific perspective, cessation of fertility and phenotypic changes associated with ovarian quenching have fostered a magical and prejudicial vision as a state related to disequilibrium, lunacy or harm. Historical portraits of women with this psychological profile through time as prophets, mystic, witches have turned in today’s hysterical, depressive or emotionally labile diagnoses. This fact reveals the impact of long standing beliefs based on myths and cosmic phenomena on the contemporary collective subconscious. An impact that, in conjunction with cultural, social and biological issues, even today, modulate the medical nosological categories.