Introduction to special edition: gender and sexual aging in the history and culture of medicine

Themes of gender and sexuality in aging have long been part of medical and health discourses but have only recently attracted sustained critical attention from scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Where such scholarship has emerged, it has often remained confined within disciplinary silos. Historians, philosophers, literary and media scholars, anthropologists, and sociologists have primarily engaged their own fields, or addressed medical practitioners, engaging in only limited dialogue with one another. This special issue seeks to bridge these gaps, positioning its inquiry within the transdisciplinary health humanities and social sciences. By exploring the interplay of gender and sexuality in the histories and cultures of health and medicine related to aging, it challenges traditional silos and fosters new collaborative approaches across the human sciences.