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An Archaeology of Sex Hormones

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An Archaeology of Sex Hormones Beyond the natural body Beyond the Natural Body presents an episode in the history of life sciences that is essential to our current understanding of sex and the body, and the relations between gender and science. Since the early decades of the twentieth century, the notion of the hormonally constructed body has become the dominant mode of conceptualizing bodies, particularly female bodies, to such an extent that we now assume that it is a natural phenomenon. This book challenges the idea that there is such a thing as a “natural” body and demonstrates that it is the process by which scientific claims achieve universal status that constructs such discourses as natural facts. Beyond the Natural Body tells the fascinating story of scientists’ search for the many tons of ovaries, testes and urine that were required in experiments to develop the hormonal body concept. It traces the origins of sex hormones and follows their development through mass-production as drugs to their eventual transformation into the contraceptive pill. Nelly Oudshoorn argues that the power to control sex and the body is not restricted to the domain of texts and ideologies. In addition, she describes the dynamic, capillary action of a science which linked cultural assumptions, concepts, ovaries, urine, diagnostic tests, laboratory equipment, marketing strategies, clinical trials, population policies and bodies, thus transforming the world we live in. Nelly Oudshoorn is Assistant Professor in the Department of Science Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam, and has written numerous articles on gender and biology. Beyond the natural body An archeology of sex hormones Nelly Oudshoorn London and New York First published 1994 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1994 Nelly Oudshoorn All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Oudshoorn, Nelly, 1950– Beyond the natural body: an archeology of sex hormones/Nelly Oudshoorn. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Sex hormones—Research—History—20th century. I. Title. QP572.S4083 1994 612.6–dc20 94–4945 ISBN 0-203-42152-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-72976-5 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-09190-X (hbk) ISBN 0-415-09191-8 (pbk) For Maartje and Rob Contents List of figures vii Preface and acknowledgements viii 1 Introduction 1 Under the spell of the body 1 Sex and the body 6 The making of the hormonal body 9 2 The birth of sex hormones 14 How the concept of sex hormones originated 15 The emergence of sex endocrinology 19 Sex hormones as dualistic agents of sex 21 Sex-specific origin 23 Source and identity of “heterosexual hormones” 26 The function of hormones 29 Terminology and classification 33 On masculine women and feminine men 36 Conclusions 39 3 The measuring of sex hormones 41 Tests for female sex hormones 42 Tests for male sex hormones 48 Disciplinary styles and instrumental incentives 49 The impact of laboratory tests on medical practice 52 Redefining masculinity and femininity 58 Conclusions 61 vi 4 The making of sex hormones 64 Gaining access to research materials 65 Dutch sex endocrinology 68 Networks between laboratory scientists and pharmaceutical 69 companies The quest for ovaries and female urine 72 The quest for testes and male urine 75 Research materials as carriers of knowledge claims 78 Conclusions 80 5 The marketing of sex hormones 81 Organon: a science-based company 82 The promotion of female sex hormones 86 The promotion of male sex hormones 98 Cracks in the scientific and therapeutic program 105 Conclusions 107 6 The transformation of sex hormones into the pill 111 Birth control: from taboo to technology 112 Testing in disguise 117 An island laboratory 124 Representing women as menstrual cycles 127 The continuous testing of the pill 131 Conclusions 134 7 The power of structures that already exist 137 Making the body natural 137 The transformative power of sex hormones 143 The mixed blessings of sex hormones 149 Notes 151 Bibliography 175 Index 191 Figures 2.1 Bernhard Zondek’s letter to the editor of Nature in which he 24 announces the presence of “œstrogenic hormone” in the urine of the stallion 2.2 Structural formulae of the “œstrogenic hormones” and the “comb- 29 growth hormones” to show the chemical relationships between sex hormones 3.1 One of the standard tests for male sex hormones: the measurement 51 of the comb size in castrated roosters before and after hormone treatment 3.2 Title-page of The Female Sex Hormone, the first handbook on 54 female sex hormones that appeared in 1929 3.3 The instrumental equipment of Laqueur’s laboratory arrives at the 62 grounds of Organon in Oss, 1 August 1923 3.4 Organon’s laboratory in 1923 62 4.1 Professor Dr Ernst Laqueur 70 4.2 The staff of the Pharmaco-Therapeutic Laboratory at the 71 University of Amsterdam in 1926 4.3 Organon’s staff celebrate a landmark in the manufacturing of 74 Menformon (female sex hormone) in the 1936–1937 working season: the use of the millionth liter of mares’ urine 5.1 Organon’s letterhead: Organon Limited Company for the 83 Manufacturing of Organ Preparations on a Scientific Basis 5.2 The first cover of Organon’s journal Het Hormoon (The Hormone) 85 5.3 Advertisement for Neo-Hombreol in The Lancet that was not used 102 in the promotion campaign for male sex hormones in The Netherlands Preface and acknowledgements In the early 1980s, my feminist friends repeatedly asked me to explain what biologists have had to say about women, and why it is that women are depicted as determined and limited by their “biological nature” in ways that men, in general, are not. Despite my years of education in biology, I had no answers to their questions. These questions led me and other biology students to found the women’s group in biology. The very first ideas for this book stem from the many evenings of discussions I shared with this group. The subject of women’s biology turned out to be profoundly political, and was at that time not yet subjected to any systemic feminist inquiry. We discussed our objections to the determinism and reductionism of biological theories relating to sex differences, and the implications of such theories for feminism. The women’s group proved to be a very creative and productive context for developing ideas and strategies to introduce the subject of women and biology to the agenda of the university curriculum. Thanks to the efforts of this group, this issue became institutionalized as a new field in women’s studies at the University of Amsterdam. The major part of the work presented in this book was done in the socially and intellectually stimulating atmosphere surrounding the establishment of this new research field. There are, inevitably, a great many people whose ideas, inspiration and support have contributed to the realization of this book: Olga Amsterdamska, Louis Boon, Teresa Brennan, Christien Brouwer, Adele Clarke, Jacqueline Cramer, Diana Long, Annemarie Mol, Nanne van der Poll, Koos Slob, Anne Fausto Sterling, Marianne van den Wijngaard, and Ineke van Wingerden. I am grateful for the help of all these colleagues and friends who have provided me with the knowledge, skills and energy that made the writing of this book into such an intellectually exciting endeavor. My work has been greatly facilitated by the cooperation of the— unfortunately now late—Professor Dr Marius Tausk, and of Dr. Ina Uyldert, who gave detailed accounts of their experiences in the field of sex hormones in the 1920s and 1930s. I gratefully acknowledge the permission of Dr. K.Wiedhaup to consult the Organon Archives containing the correspondence of Professor Dr. Ernst Laqueur, and the assistance of the library staff of the Faculty of Biology at the University of Amsterdam in collecting the relevant ix literature on sex hormones. I wish to thank Gene Moore in particular for his skillful and thorough editing of the translations. Last, but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my family and friends. To my parents for providing me with the opportunity to complete a higher education, which enabled me to leave my job in a small town pharmacy for a then unknown but exciting future. To my friend Rob Vrakking for providing me with the ideal condition for the birth of this book: a creative silence. Some of these chapters are based on previously published materials. Chapter 2 was first published in the Journal of the History of Biology, 1990, 23 (2):163–186; an earlier version of Chapter 3 appeared in Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1990, 64:243–261; Chapter 4 has been published in Social Studies of Science 1990, 20:5–33; and a shorter version of Chapter 5 appeared in Science, Technology and Human Values, 1993, 18:5–25. I gratefully acknowledge the permission of AKZO, Organon International BV, to use the photographs of the early laboratory work on sex hormones (Chapters 3, 4 and 5 ) and Chemisch Weekblad, The Lancet and Nature for permission to use the photographs of publications on sex hormones (Chapters 2 and 5).
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