Gender differences in eating disorders: the role of medicalisation

Had a paper on gender differences in eating disorders (EDs) been written in the 1970s, it would likely have included discussion of whether males should be eligible for the diagnosis of the sole eating disorder that was recognised at that time, namely, anorexia nervosa. There might also have been discussion of the clinical characteristics of male patients and whether and how these differed from those of female patients. Otherwise, the focus would have been on the factors that led some young women to develop the "morbid preoccupation with weight loss" that was considered the defining characteristic of the condition. Since this time, the issue of gender differences in EDs has become increasingly complex as the number and diversity of conditions deemed to constitute an ED has proliferated and the proportion of these conditions accounted for by males has increased. In the current contribution, it is proposed that gender differences in EDs should be viewed in the context of an ongoing process of medicalisation, whereby problems that were previously deemed to be societal in nature or, indeed, not problems at all, have come to be seen as disorders demanding clinical and public health attention. It is suggested that medicalisation should be viewed as a key variable accounting for change in the gender distribution of EDs over time and that the occurrence, drivers and ramifications of this process warrant greater attention in future discussions of this issue.