This plate elucidates the womb bent or turned backward and pressing on
the rectum. This condition is generally traceable to the vicious custom
of lying on the back after confinement or during childbed. The natural
position of the organ, inclined forward and resting on the bladder, is
also shown.]
As a permanent pathological lesion, this form of displacement is very
rare, but as a forerunner of retroflexion it is of frequent occurrence.
The length of time that elapses for a version to take on a flexion
depends on the degree of induration or stiffness of the uterine walls.
The chronic inflammatory enlargement of the uterus predisposes the
organ to posterior displacement, and the displacement favors the
development of flexion. This takes place in the following order: After
the uterus is displaced backwards, and its cervix has become fixed by
inflammatory adhesions, the body of the womb gradually glides down
on the posterior pelvic wall, from gravitation and intra-abdominal
pressure. And in this very simple manner a retroversion is converted
into a retroflexion. The causes, symptoms, and complications that
characterize this variety of displacement, with its subsequent
modification into flexion, are the same as those of retroflexion, to
which the reader is referred.
RETROFLEXION OF THE UTERUS.
This form of uterine displacement exists when the body of the womb is
bent towards the posterior wall of the pelvis, which is in an opposite
direction to that where it naturally belongs. I have already pointed
out, in speaking of the normal position of the uterus, that the body
is directed forwards and rests on the bladder, while its cervix points
downwards into the pelvic cavity. I now refer you to Plate IV, in which
I plainly show the uterus in a directly opposite position to that in
health, namely, turned back, resting on and depressing the rectum.