Vitalogy | Issue 16

Vitalogy | Issue 16

Menstrual difficulties

Men of science moved on from a the superstitions of the past, when monthly bleeding in females was believed to be punishment from God for Women’s original sin. Though repugnant, menstruation is a natural function of the uterus in women of childbearing age.  

The delicacy of the internal female causes many problems in the process of menstruation. Menstrual pains are caused by too much exercise, injuries, violent passions of the mind, and too frequent sexual indulgence. Robust, plethoric females, who eat abundantly and drink wine, can bear a comparatively large discharge without inconvenience, whilst delicate patients, of relaxed constitution, would quickly suffer seriously from excessive discharges. 

The Prince’s Feather cultivated in gardens for its beautiful red colour is a celebrated remedy for this difficulty. 

An intelligent female is just as capable of introducing these remedies as a physician. If menstruation is copious or painful, the patient should spare herself, and maintain a recumbent posture a great deal for a few days before and especially during the discharge. Injections of cold, even iced water up the bowel are useful. The hips should be as high or higher than the shoulders, so as to relieve the uterus of the column of blood. So long as the tendency to this disease continues, every kind of excitement should be restricted or avoided altogether. All sexual intercourse must be positively avoided for two or three days, at least, preceding the appearance of each menstrual period, and every unnatural habit that may have been insidiously acquired must be utterly abandoned.

When the menstrual pains are severe, or the patient is more than usually weak, put across the small of the back, over the kidneys and reaching to the loins, a girdle of flaxseed poultice, well sprinkled with pulverised camphor. For painful menstruation and low circulation we prescribe magnetic manipulations. The avoidance of influences that disturb the mind and temper, are important accessories in the treatment. 

If your feet and body are painfully cold after retiring for the night, your best remedy is very long, fur stockings, and mitten of the same, with neatly fitting wristlets. Wear these only at night.

When the painful menstruation is caused by a wrong position of the womb, this must first be cured before it can be removed. This can be overcome by the careful employment of bougies. Or, instead of bougies, tents of various may be made of twine, or silk cord, etc., and, after dipping them in the following preparation, be introduced into the canal of the neck of the womb, and be retained there by plugging up the vagina with soft pieces of old muslin, etc. They should vary in size from that of a knitting needle to that of a goose quill, and about an inch and a half in length, always beginning with the smallest first, and in every five or ten days increasing the size. A piece of softwood may be whittled down to the size of the little finger, and a hole be made in one end in which to fit the tent.

*This information was taken from Vitalogy, a real medical book published in 1923. This column is for entertainment only and should not be taken as advice by anyone, ever.

This article first appeared in Issue 16, 2016.
Posted 12:09pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Prof's Wood & Ruddock.