Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in WomenEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
In England Lawson Tait and Bantock (_British Medical Journal_,
October 14, 1899, p. 975) have noted that sexual passion seems
sometimes to be increased even after the removal of ovaries,
tubes, and uterus. Lawson Tait also stated (_British
Gynæcological Journal_, Feb., 1887, p. 534) that after systematic
and extensive inquiry he had not found a single instance in
which, provided that sexual appetite existed before the removal
of the appendages, it was abolished by that operation. A Medical
Inquiry Committee appointed by the Liverpool Medical Institute
(ibid., p. 617) had previously reported that a considerable
number of patients stated that they had suffered a distinct loss
of sexual feeling. Lawson Tait, however, throws doubts on the
reliability of the Committee's results, which were based on the
statements of unintelligent hospital patients.
I may quote the following remarks from a communication sent to me
by an experienced physician in Australia: "No rule can be laid
down in cases in which both ovaries have been extirpated. Some
women say that, though formerly passionate, they have since
become quite indifferent, but I am of opinion that the majority
of women who have had prior sexual experience retain desire and
gratification in an equal degree to that they had before
operation. I know one case in which a young girl hardly 19 years
old, who had been accustomed to congress for some twelve months,
had trouble which necessitated the removal of the ovaries and
tubes on both sides. Far from losing all her desire or
gratification, both were very materially increased in intensity.
Menstruation has entirely ceased, without loss of femininity in
either disposition or appearance. During intercourse, I am told,
there is continuous spasmodic contraction of various parts of the
vagina and vulva."
The independence of the sexual impulse from the distention of the sexual
glands is further indicated by the great frequency with which sexual
sensations, in a faint or even strong degree, are experienced in childhood
and sometimes in infancy, and by the fact that they often persist in women
long after the sexual glands have ceased their functions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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