A Synopsis of Theoretical Approaches to Secondary Amenorrhea

人類學歷來對於有關月經、月經禁忌以及經前症候群(PMS)等面向的討論已投注相當的關注。在Paige and Paige (1981)、 Schlehe (1987)、Buckley與Gottieb (1988)等的著作中皆已簡明地綜合了這些現象研究的理論取向。相反地，關於無月經和停經研究的理論回顧卻極為稀少。因此，這方面的理論討論乃本文的焦點。本文首先提出對於停經的簡要定義以及近來學術研究的概觀，然後論及傳統中醫理論與西方醫學和心理學的觀點。以往的研究經常忽略了從社會文化因素的架構來討論停經的問題，因此這樣的脈絡本身是極具有意義地。本文最後提議採用一種結合不同學科長處的多元理論取向，以期對於這個迄今仍侷促在單一理論視野的研究主題之未來發展有所助益。

Menstruaation, menstrual taboos, and the pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) have received much attention in anthropology. Paige and Paige (1981), Schlehe (1987), and Buckley and Gottieb (1988) have succinctly synthesized theoretical approaches to these phenomena. In contrast, reviews of theories on the absence of menstruation, amenorrhea, are fairly rare. This essay therefore focuses primarily on such theories. It first provides a brief definition of amenorrhea and an overview of recent scholarship, and then discusses traditional Chinese medical theories as well as Western medical and psychological views. It subsequently considers amenorrhea in the framework of socio-cultural factors, demonstrating that the context, often neglected in previous studies, is significant in shaping the condition itself. The essay concludes by suggesting a multiple theoretical approach, which combines the strengths of different disciplines, to throw light on a topic that has hitherto been analyzed from single theoretical, and thus somewhat limited, perspectives.