Backpain, the Feminine Affliction

Medical practice does not find women's diseases exciting—but if in addition women's illnesses fail to fit into given categories and expectations, then the illness is delegitimised. Backpain is one such health complaint. And yet it is also a symptom of a more fundamental problem, the social insult which is inflicted on women's bodies in a variety of ways throughout their lives. This article illustrates this through hospital-based study of women suffering from osteoporotic fractures