The Four Epochs of Woman's Life; A Study in HygieneGalbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Science
The Four Epochs of Woman's Life; A Study in Hygiene
Galbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Women -- Health and hygiene
Causes of Suffering at Menopause.-- Dusourd, whose practice lay in an
agricultural district in the south of France, as well as Tilt,
believes that peasant women suffer little at this time. Their health
is generally good when the menopause comes on and they are little
liable to nervous disorders. The poor of large towns suffer much at
this epoch-- the necessity of working hard, the anxieties of poverty
and their unhygienic surroundings. But by a fortunate compensation the
necessity for working hard prevents or cures the nervous affections
which so often assail the rich at this period.
Tilt's cases showed that women who suffered much at the menopause had
previously suffered at puberty and at the menstrual periods. And among
thirty-nine cases where there was no suffering at the menopause, there
was the same immunity from suffering at puberty and at the menstrual
epochs.
Tilt's statistics were, or course, taken from English women. In
forty-four cases of my own, all women past the menopause, the average
age of the first menstruation was fourteen years and four months; and
the average age of the actual cessation of the menstrual flow was
forty-eight years and five and two-thirds months. Subtracting from
this the average age of the first menstruation, we have as the mean
age of menstrual life thirty-four years one and two-thirds months;
that is, the average duration of the menstrual function was from two
to four years longer than that usually given.
A further investigation in order to ascertain any possible relation
between the age of marriage and the number of pregnancies and the
sufferings of the menopause elicited the following statistics. The
average age of marriage was twenty-five years and ten months. Of the
four women who were married after thirty-eight years, all were
sterile; among the remaining there was an average of slightly above
three children each. Forty per cent. of all these cases had one or
more miscarriages. Nine had habitually suffered from severe
dysmenorrhea, eleven had slight dysmenorrhea, and twenty-two had never
felt the slightest inconvenience.
In a list of fifty-two cases, eight were added to the list already
given, all of whom had passed the menopause. Five were perfectly
healthy and had never suffered the slightest inconvenience. Of these,
one was single and only one had one miscarriage. Ten had suffered at
the time of the menopause from slight malaise, but not sufficiently to
call in a medical attendant. Thirty-seven were more or less seriously
ill; thirty of these needed local as well as constitutional treatment,
and seven constitutional treatment only.
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