Some Brazilian television channels give opportunities for health professionals, mostly gynecologists, to answer public consultations live. This paper analyses two such programs, which we denominate 'medical tele-consultations': the first one is a national TV program called Note e Anote (Record Net) and the second is a regional TV program called Conversa Franca (Band-Bahia). The topic selected to be discussed here is menstruation and the vicissitudes of this period for women. We intend to show how this health issue is represented in these programs as something impure and pathologic and how these representation strategies affect gender identities and create conflicts in relation to women's bodies.
television talk shows; gender; female body