The sexual life of woman in its physiological, pathological and hygienic aspectsKisch, E. Heinrich (Enoch Heinrich)
Science
The sexual life of woman in its physiological, pathological and hygienic aspects
Kisch, E. Heinrich (Enoch Heinrich)
Gynecology; Menstruation; Women -- Diseases
The intensity of such nervous manifestations during menstruation is
dependent upon the woman’s general state of nutrition, upon the degree
of instability of her nervous system, and upon her occupation. Robust
and powerful women, regularly employed in the open air, such as the
wives and daughters of farmers and agricultural laborers, are much less
affected by the nerve-weakening influences of menstruation than the
sedentary and anæmic town-dwelling women, whether these latter belong to
the higher classes of society and are addicted to nerve-straining
enjoyments, or to the class of shop-girls, seamstresses, and
factory-women, whose employment is apt to lead to nervous exhaustion.
As regards the forms of neuralgia most apt to accompany menstruation,
_Windscheid_ mentions trigeminal neuralgia as the commonest, especially
affecting the first division of the nerve, and producing localized pains
which are to be distinguished from the headaches already mentioned. They
are characterized by their intensity and their persistence in spite of
anti-neuralgic treatment, and by their spontaneous disappearance as soon
as menstruation is over. According to the same author, the relations
between hemicrania and the process of menstruation are indisputable; at
the very least it must be admitted that menstruation predisposes to an
attack of hemicrania.
Cases also occur in which convulsions almost invariably accompany
menstruation, convulsions which are to be regarded as symptoms of
hysteria.
The extraordinarily powerful influence which the menstrual stimulus
exercises on the mind is shown by the frequency with which the slighter
psychopathic states occur as an accompaniment even of normal
menstruation, these manifestations being sometimes melancholic in type,
sometimes maniacal or erotic, and, when of long duration, leading
ultimately to pronounced mental disorder. This influence of the
menstrual stimulus is yet more potent in cases in which important
changes in the course of menstruation have occurred, in cases, for
instance, of suppressed, painful, or irregular menstruation. In this
connection, however, in order to avoid a confusion of cause and effect,
we must carefully bear in mind, that it is a much commoner causal
sequence for psychical disorders to disturb the normal course of
menstruation, than for disorders of menstruation to evoke psychical
disorders. This view has only quite recently become established, and for
this reason it is necessary to regard such data when obtained from the
writings of the older gynecologists in a somewhat critical spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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