A Text-book of Diseases of WomenPenrose, Charles B. (Charles Bingham)
Science
A Text-book of Diseases of Women
Penrose, Charles B. (Charles Bingham)
Women -- Diseases
The results of the injuries received during parturition are most
numerous. They may appear immediately, a short time after labor, or
at some remote period. The disabilities attending laceration through
the sphincter ani or a recto-vaginal or vesico-vaginal fistula appear
before the mother leaves her bed. The suffering from a laceration of
the cervix, a subinvolution of the uterus, or a retrodisplacement may
not be felt for some weeks or months after labor; while the still more
remote result, the development of cancer, may not appear for many
years, though it can be positively traced to the lesion in the cervix
as the primary cause.
Septic infection of the genital tract kills or makes invalids of many
women. The infection occurs at the time of a miscarriage or of a normal
labor, or it may be acquired from the dirty instruments or the dirty
hands of a physician. It is not a cause of disease among civilized
women alone, but occurs among barbarous and semi-barbarous races.
Venereal disease, especially gonorrhea, has been said to be the most
common cause of disease among women. The disease extends from the
external genitals through the uterus and Fallopian tubes, causing
sterility, chronic invalidism, and death from peritonitis.
Errors of development are frequent causes of disease and suffering
among women. Atresia of the vagina or of the cervix uteri, by causing
retention of the uterine discharges, produces most serious pathological
conditions. Arrested development of the whole or of part of the uterus
is a common cause of disease.
Improper clothing and an improper mode of life during the period of
development are most fertile sources of diseases of women. Clothing
which contracts the waist, as well as clothing which, though not unduly
tight in the inactive state, yet interferes with abdominal respiration
during activity, is most injurious. Such clothing diminishes the
capacity of inspiration by restricting abdominal expansion, and
thus crowds down the pelvic organs toward the pelvic floor; and the
continuous support to the abdominal walls diminishes their natural
muscular strength and places the woman in a condition predisposing to
the various displacements of the uterus.
An improper mode of life, irregular hours for sleeping and eating,
insufficient exercise, and lack of fresh air and sun, resulting in poor
muscular development, seem to predispose the woman, as the man, to a
variety of pathological conditions; but as the reproductive apparatus
in woman is more delicately organized, and as, during the period of
active life, this is really her chief part, it more especially suffers
as a result of any general systemic derangement.
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