Article is penned by male in discomfort (7)
I believe the answer is:
malaise
'discomfort' is the definition.
(I know that malaise is a type of discomfort)
'article is penned by male' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'a' (the indefinite article in English).
'penned by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a'+'is'='ais'
'ais' going into 'male' is 'MALAISE'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for malaise that I've seen before include "General feeling of discomfort" , "Feeling of physical or mental illness" , "Unease; lethargy" , "sickness" , "Feeling of impending illness" .)