Ganhando em Loteria Invertida: masculinidades e saúde no controle do câncer de mama masculino

Abstract

Within the scope of studies on masculinities, men's health and cancer control network in Rio de Janeiro, this thesis proposes an intersectional analysis of barriers in male breast cancer control. In addition to a theoretical-bibliographical review, field research was carried out, with the Cancer Hospital III of the National Cancer Institute as a scenario - reference in SUS for the treatment of the disease in Rio de Janeiro. The study's guiding hypotheses are that delays in diagnosis and treatment of male breast cancer have two main conditioning factors. On the one hand, the social construction of masculinities, based on gendered representation of body in the modern colonial gender system, whose formulations come from the co-production between gender, race and science, interfering both in the way men deal with illness and in formulation of health policies and practices based on intertwining of sexism, liberalism and race relations. On the other hand, there is funding crisis in context of the Brazilian State's counter-reform, with attacks on the principles of universality and integrality and (dis)organization in oncological care network, which restricts access to timely diagnosis and treatment. As data collection techniques were used in research, document analysis of medical records about the staging of the disease at the beginning of treatment, comorbidities, sociodemographic data; and semi-structured interviews to men with breast cancer enrolled in the research setting between July 2016 and July 2020 to identify, in the narrated experience in search of health care, the barriers related to the construction of masculinities and the oncological care policy in Rio de Janeiro, which result in delays in their diagnosis and/or treatment. This thesis contributes to understand of social aspects and intersectionality in the organization of public health policies and practices, as well as the conditions that affect the subjects' access to health.