BECOMING A WOMAN.
Perhaps you will remember that I once told you that all life is from
an egg, the life of the plant, the fish, the bird, the human being. In
the book "What a Young Girl Ought to Know" we discussed how all life
originates in an egg, and why there must needs be fathers as well as
mothers. We found that some eggs were small, were laid by the mothers
in various places, and then left to develop or to die. Others were
larger, covered with a large shell, and kept warm by the mothers
sitting over them until the little ones were hatched. Others were so
small that they developed in the mother's body until, as living
creatures, they were born into the world. This is the case with the
human being. He is first an egg in the mother's ovary. When this egg
has reached a certain stage of development it passes from the ovary
through a tube into the uterus. If it meets there, or on its way
there, the fertilizing principle of the male, it remains there and
develops into the child. If it does not meet this principle, it passes
out through the vagina and is lost.
But the eggs, or ova--which is the Latin word meaning eggs--do not
begin to ripen until the girl reaches the age of thirteen or fourteen,
or, in other words, until she begins to become a woman. This passing
away of the ovum (singular of ova) is called ovulation, and it occurs
in the woman about every twenty-eight days. The uterus is lined by a
mucous membrane similar to that which lines the mouth, and at this
time of ovulation this membrane becomes swollen and soft, and little
hemorrhages, or bleedings, occur for three or four days, the blood
passing away through the vagina. This is called menstruation.
Sometimes, when girls have not been told beforehand of the facts of
menstruation, they become greatly frightened at seeing this blood and
imagine that they have some dreadful disease. If they have no friend
to whom they can speak freely they sometimes do very injudicious
things in their efforts to remove that which to them seems so strange
and inexplicable. I have known of girls who washed their clothes in
cold water and put them on wet, and so took cold and perhaps checked
the menstrual flow, and as a consequence were injured for life, or may
even have died years after as a result of this unwise conduct.
The girl who is wisely taught will recognize in this the outward sign
of the fact that she has reached womanhood, that she has entered upon
what is called the maternal period of a woman's life, the period when
it is possible for her to become a mother.
This does not mean that she should become a mother while so young. It
only means that the sex organs are so far developed that they are
beginning to take up their peculiar functions. But they are like the
immature buds of the flower, and need time for a perfect development.
If she understands this, and recognizes her added value to the world
through the perfecting of her entire organism, she will desire to take
good care of herself, and during these years of early young womanhood
to develop into all that is possible of sweetness, grace, purity, and
all true womanliness.
Girls who are not wisely taught sometimes feel that this new physical
function is a vexatious hindrance to their happiness. It is often
accompanied with pain, and its periodical recurrence interferes with
their plans for pleasure, and they in ignorance sometimes say,
rebelliously, "O, I hate being a woman!"
A young woman once came to consult me professionally. She was a
well-formed, good-looking girl, to all outward appearance lacking
nothing in her physical make-up; but she was now twenty-two and had
never menstruated, so she was aware that for some reason she was not
like other girls. She came to ask me to make an examination and find
out, if possible, what was wrong. She was engaged to be married, and
knew that motherhood was in some way connected with menstruation, and
she thought it might be possible that her physical condition would
preclude the possibility of her becoming a mother, and, if so, it
would be dishonorable to marry. Upon examination I discovered that all
the organs of reproduction were lacking. When I disclosed this fact to
her she exclaimed, with sadness, "Oh, why was I not made like other
girls? I have heard them complain because they were girls, but I think
if they were in my place, and knew that they could never have a home
and children of their own, they would feel they had greater reason
then to complain."
I think so, too. We seldom think of the fact that upon sex depend all
the sweet ties of home and family. It is because of sex that we are
fathers, mothers and children; that we have the dear family life, with
its anniversaries of weddings and birthdays. It is through sex that
the "desolate of the earth are set in families," and love and
generosity have sway instead of selfishness. For this reason we ought
to regard sex with reverent thought, to hold it sacred to the highest
purposes, to speak of it ever with purest delicacy, and never with
jesting or prurient smiles. I do not want you to center your thought
on the physical facts of sex, but I would like to have you feel that
womanhood, which is the mental, moral and physical expression of sex,
is a glorious, divine gift, to be received with solemn thankfulness.
I want you, for the sake of a perfect womanhood, to take care of your
bodily health, and yet I do not want you to feel that a woman must of
necessity be a periodical semi-invalid.