¿Qué más nos dice un prospecto? Píldoras anticonceptivas y discurso médico

Abstract

The objective of the following work is the linguistic analysis of a medical leaflet of female oral contraceptives. This exercise is linked to my PhD research, focused on the medicalization with contraceptive pills and the discourses about it, by users and professionals or health agencies. In this opportunity, using tools of the critical discourse analysis and linguistic pragmatics, I try to reconstruct those features that allow us to affirm that this type of text is not a neutral communicative production, nor does it belong only to the instructional-expository typology. On the contrary, like any discourse, it depends on and responds to certain contexts (intertextual and situational) and must also be studied in that relationship. To do this, I start from a succinct analysis of the typographical, lexical and syntactic-grammatical planes of a concrete prospect (Microgynon) to point out how receivers are profiled in it, and also exhortations, responsibilities vs. decision-making capacities, and risk. Finally, I conclude that the decision-making capacity (regarding the taking of the medication) is assigned to the medical professional, to the detriment of the autonomy of the women, who instead bear the responsibility for the incorrect use of the drug.