Male sexuality, medicalization and public health in Brazil

Abstract

This article focuses on the articulation between male health and sexuality in Brazil. In recent decades there has been a marked medicalization of sexuality centered on the development of new technologies, diagnostic categories and intervention methods, including the creation of public policies in the Brazilian public health system. This process is best exemplified by a set of initiatives pursued under the banner of “sexual health as a portal to men’s health”. The core idea is that men, who would normally not look after their health, will be attracted to the health system via the treatment of erectile dysfunction. The public and political campaigns focusing on acceptance of the relative new diagnoses of erectile dysfunction and andropause (or androgen decline in the aging male) illustrate how, in the last two decades, a new focus on masculinity has taken shape via the pharmacologization of sexuality.