The Burnout Society

Health Self-Exploitation: When We Become CEOs of Our Own Bodies

"Doctor, I have an app that tracks my ovulation, another that monitors my sleep, supplements to optimize my fertility, and a specific exercise plan for each phase of my cycle. What else can I do?"

Laura, 32, a marketing executive, comes to my appointment with a folder full of charts about her menstrual cycle. She's turned her body into a business project that she manages with the same dedication as her advertising campaigns. And she's exhausted.

This is the most subtle and dangerous face of what philosopher Byung-Chul Han describes as "The Burnout Society": we no longer need anyone to force us to exploit our bodies—we do it voluntarily, convinced that it's empowering.

From patients to entrepreneurs of ourselves

Han explains that we have moved from a disciplinary society (where institutions control us) to a performance society (where we control ourselves). In terms of health, this means:

Before:

• The doctor decided when and how to manage your pregnancy.
• Social norms dictated how to be a mother.
• Institutions set fertility protocols.

Now:

• You decide how many checkups you need (and there are always more)
• You take responsibility for optimizing every aspect of your health
• You become the manager of your own maternal project

The paradoxical result: the more freedom we have, the more enslaved we become by our own expectations.

The exhaustion of constant optimization

In my practice I see the symptoms of this health self-exploitation every day:

The CEO of her own fertility

Women who manage their fertility like a business department: apps, charts, metrics, quantifiable goals. Every month they don't get pregnant is a "failure" in their personal project.

The perfect pregnancy entrepreneur

Pregnant women who have turned pregnancy into a 9-month MBA. They monitor every nutrient, every exercise, every emotion, as if the outcome depended solely on their efficient management.

The manager of her menopause

Women who approach hormonal transition as a "business restructuring" that must be carried out without affecting their professional or personal performance.

Symptoms of health burnout

Han describes how the performance subject eventually collapses under their own demands. In health, this manifests as:

• Information overload: Keeping up with every study, every supplement, every optimization technique becomes a full-time job.
• Performance anxiety: The constant pressure to "do everything right" generates anxiety that paradoxically negatively affects health.
• Corporate guilt: Every "poor result" is experienced as a personal failure in managing one's health project.
• Loss of spontaneity: The obsession with controlling variables turns natural experiences like conception into mechanical and calculated processes.

The total responsibility trap

"If I do everything right, I'll get the result I want"—this is the toxic belief that fuels health self-exploitation.

The reality is more complex: there are aspects of health that are completely beyond our control, regardless of how much effort we invest in optimizing them.

Han points out that the performance society sells us the illusion that we are completely responsible for our results. In health, this translates into the belief that we can control:

• When we get pregnant (with the perfect diet, supplements, and timing)
• How our pregnancy progresses (with complete control over the variables)
• What our birth will be like (with the perfect plan)
• How we will experience menopause (with the optimal strategy)

The paradox of infinite choice

Technology offers us endless options to "improve" our health:

• Fertility Apps
• Personalized Supplements
• Preventive Genetic Testing
• Egg Freezing
• Constant Hormone Monitoring

Each new option presents an opportunity for optimization, but also an additional responsibility. Should you take that test? Take that supplement? Use that app?

The feeling that "you could be doing more" never goes away.

Recognizing health self-exploitation

How do you know if you've fallen into this trap?

Warning signs:

• You spend more time managing your health than actually living it.
• You feel guilty about every decision that isn't "optimal."
• Your self-worth depends on reproductive metrics (cycle regularity, hormone levels, etc.).
• Spontaneity has disappeared from your sexual and reproductive experience.
• You're exhausted from keeping up with all the possible ways to "improve" yourself.

The way back: from self-exploitation to self-care

Han proposes that we recognize the limits of our personal responsibility. In health, this means:

Distinguish between care and control:

• Caution: Basic healthy habits, appropriate medical follow-up
• Obsessive control: Micromanagement of every biological variable

Accepting uncertainty:

• There are aspects of reproductive health that we cannot optimize.
• Biology has its own wisdom, which doesn't always coincide with our plans.

Regain body confidence:

• Your body is not a company to be managed
• Reproductive processes have functioned for millennia without micromanagement

Redefining success:

• Reproductive success is not perfect optimization.
• It is the ability to accompany natural processes with wisdom and serenity.

The consultation as a space for liberation

In my medical practice, one of the most important conversations I have with my patients is about the limits of personal responsibility in health.

"You are not responsible for controlling everything" is one of the most liberating phrases I can offer a woman exhausted by her own reproductive optimization program.

This doesn't mean medical malpractice—it means distinguishing between intelligent care and self-exploitation disguised as empowerment.

Towards a new relationship with our body

Han invites us to recognize that not everything can be optimized, and that the obsession with constant performance robs us of the ability to simply be.

In reproductive terms, this translates to recovering:

• Trust in natural processes
• The ability to enjoy without optimizing
• Respect for one's own biological rhythms
• Acceptance of uncertainty as a part of life

It's not about rejecting medical advances, but about using them without becoming slaves to our own perfection projects.

Liberation is at the limit

True reproductive freedom isn't about being able to control everything, but about knowing when to let go of control.

Han writes: "Only when we learn to not do, to stop, to rest, can we escape the destructive logic of constant performance."

In health, this means learning to:

• Trusting our bodies without constantly monitoring them
• Taking care of ourselves without obsessively monitoring ourselves
• Accepting the results without taking full responsibility for them

Because in the end, the deepest health doesn't come from perfect optimization, but from the wisdom of knowing when to act and when to simply accompany our natural processes with respect and trust.

And that, paradoxically, may be the most efficient way to truly take care of our health.

Do you recognize yourself in any of these forms of health self-exploitation? Have you ever felt the exhaustion of constantly trying to optimize your health? Where do you think the line lies between intelligent care and obsessive control?

Bibliography

Han, Byung-Chul. The Burnout Society. STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2015.