SOME CAUSES OF PAINFUL MENSTRUATION.
There should be no pain at menstruation, but that pain is quite common
cannot be denied. Let us look for other causes than are found in the
dress.
One frequent cause is found in the ignorance of girls, and their
consequent injudicious conduct at the time of the beginning of sexual
activity. At this time of life the girl is often called lazy because
she manifests lassitude, and this is nature's indication that she
should rest. The vital forces are busy establishing a new function,
and the energy that has been expressed in bodily activity is now being
otherwise employed. The girl who has been properly brought up, whose
muscles are strong, and whose nervous supply is abundant, may have no
need of especial care at this time, but the average girl needs much
judicious care, in order that her physical womanhood shall be
healthfully established. She should be guarded from taking cold, from
overexertion, from social dissipation, and especially from mental
excitement, and other causes of nervousness. I would like to call your
attention to the great evil of romance-reading, both in the
production of premature development and in the creation of morbid
mental states which will tend to the production of physical evils,
such as nervousness, hysteria, and a host of maladies which largely
depend upon disturbed nerves.
Girls are not apt to understand the evils of novel-reading, and may
think it is only because mothers have outlived their days of romance
that they object to their daughters enjoying such sentimental reading;
but the wise mother understands the effects of sensational reading
upon the physical organization, and wishes to protect her daughter
from the evils thus produced.
It is not only that novel-reading engenders false and unreal ideas of
life, but the descriptions of love-scenes, of thrilling, romantic
episodes, find an echo in the girl's physical system and tend to
create an abnormal excitement of her organs of sex, which she
recognizes only as a pleasurable mental emotion, with no comprehension
of the physical origin or the evil effects.
Romance-reading by young girls will, by this excitement of the bodily
organs, tend to create their premature development, and the child
becomes physically a woman months, or even years, before she should.
In one case it became my duty to warn a girl of eleven, who was an
omnivorous reader of romances, that such reading was in all
probability hastening her development, and she would become a woman in
bodily functions while she ought yet to be a child. Her indications of
approaching womanhood were very apparent. By becoming impressed by my
words she gave up romance-reading, devoted herself to outdoor sports,
to nature studies, and the vital forces diverted from the reproductive
system were employed in building up her physical energy, her health
improved, her nervousness disappeared, and three years later her
function of menstruation was painlessly established.
A frequent cause of painful menstruation is found in habitual neglect
of the bowels. The evils of constipation are common to the majority of
women and girls, and the foundation is laid in childhood. Mothers are
not careful enough in instructing children in the need of care in this
respect, and so the habit is formed early in life, and the results are
felt later.
If the bowels are not evacuated regularly the matter to be cast out of
the body accumulates in the rectum and large bowel, and by pressure
the circulation of the blood is impeded and congestion ensues. This
extends to all the pelvic organs; the uterus and ovaries thus
congested will soon manifest disease, and painful menstruation be the
result.
One of the most frequent causes of pain is congestion produced by
displacements. People are very apt to think that the displacement of
the uterus is the main factor, but in my opinion it is a secondary
condition, and not the one to be first considered. The uterus is a
small organ, not vital to the individual, is very movable, and not
sensitive, so that its displacement alone could hardly be considered
sufficient to cause so great a train of evils as is frequently
manifest. But the liver, stomach and bowels are large, vital organs,
and their displacement leads to greater consequences. You learned at
school that the bowels are over twenty feet in length, weigh as much
as twelve or fifteen pounds, are supported in a way that makes it
possible for them to sag into the abdominal cavity and press upon the
pelvic organs. Dr. Emerson, of the Boston School of Oratory, asserts
that in most adults the stomach and bowels are from two to six inches
below their normal location; and, as I have said before, Dr. Kellogg
often finds the stomach lying in the abdominal cavity as low down as
the umbilicus. What has caused this sagging of the abdominal viscera?
They certainly must have been intended to keep their place unless
there has been some interference. We find just such interference in
the ordinary arrangement of the clothing. Tight waists and bands, and
skirts supported by the hips, are cause sufficient for these
displacements.
Just above the hips there is no bony structure to protect and support
the soft, muscular parts. They yield to pressure, and the internal
viscera, deprived of muscular support, sink until they rest on the
pelvic organs. If, when you look at your abdomen, you see depressions
or hollows on each side below the floating ribs, you may know that the
bowels have sagged down out of place. If you feel great weariness,
backache, or a dragged down feeling in standing or walking, you may
know that the contents of the abdomen are pulling on their attachments
or pressing on the pelvic organs. Thus displaced, circulation is
hindered and the organs all become congested, or filled with blood
that moves very slowly. This congested condition is increased at
menstruation, and great pain may result.
It is well to have the counsel of some good, honest physician under
such circumstances, but should you be where it is not possible to have
such counsel, you may still be able to do something to help yourself.
In the first place, you can rearrange your clothing so as to relieve
all the organs from external weight or pressure, and, in the second
place, you can support the abdominal walls by applying pressure from
below. I have known cases of painful menstruation entirely relieved by
simply supporting the bowels by a bandage, thus relieving the uterus
of pressure and allowing a free circulation through all the internal
organs.
A very simple and practical bandage can be made at home at almost no
cost, either in time or money. Buy some thin, cheap cotton flannel.
Take lengthwise of the goods a strip long enough to go around the body
at the hips, which will be a yard or a little over, and wide enough to
fit from the thighs up to the waist, perhaps eight inches. Put darts
on the sides and in the center of the back, to make it fit the figure.
Make a couple of straps four inches wide and half a yard long; cut off
one end of each diagonally. Sew these slanting ends to the lower side
of the band about four inches from the center, that is eight inches
apart, and so that the short side of the strap will be towards the
center. Do not hem either band or straps, but overcast them; then they
will not feel uncomfortable.
In order to adjust the band properly it will be well to lie down on
the back upon the bandage with the knees raised. Press the hands low
down upon the abdomen and raise the contents. Repeat this several
times; then draw the bandage around, pin with safety pins, draw the
straps up between the limbs and fasten with safety pins to the
bandage. The support thus given is found to be very comfortable, and
girls who have much trouble in walking or standing during their
menstrual periods would find this simple bandage a great help at that
time.
When the bandage is removed at night you should rub and manipulate the
abdominal walls so as to increase the circulation and stimulate in
them a better circulation and thus make you stronger.
By deep breathing in a proper standing attitude the abdominal viscera
are lifted upward, and if the firmness of the abdominal walls is at
the same time increased by exercise, the difficulties may be largely
overcome. Some exercises will be found in Chapter XXIII. which are
calculated to strengthen the walls and to lift the internal organs.
I wish to call your attention to a cause of displacement that is quite
generally overlooked, and that is, a wrong attitude.
Dr. Eliza Mosher has made a very thorough study of this matter, and
she says that the common habit of standing on one foot is productive
of marked deformities of both face and body and of serious
displacements of internal organs. It is seldom a girl or woman can be
found whose body is perfectly symmetrical. By standing on one foot,
the hip and shoulder of one side approach each other, and so lessen
the space within the abdomen on that side. On the other side a support
has been removed for the contents of the abdomen, and they sag down
until they pry the uterus out of place and press it over towards the
side where there is less pressure. The broad ligament on one side is
stretched from use and on the other side shortened from disuse, and so
the uterus remains permanently dislocated.
Dr. Mosher thinks that standing continually with the weight on the
left foot is more injurious than bearing it on the right foot, for it
causes the uterus and ovaries to press upon the rectum and so produces
a mechanical constipation, especially during menstruation.
Wrong habits of sitting will produce the same results. If the girl
sits at school with one elbow on the desk, the head will be turned to
the opposite side and the spine will be inclined from the
perpendicular, and a lateral curvature be likely to result. If she
carries her books always on the same side, it will tend to increase
the curvature. If she sits with both elbows supported, her shoulders
will be pushed up. If her body is twisted as she sits, a strain comes
upon the muscles, and some ligaments will be lengthened and others
shortened, thus producing a lateral curvature.
To sit "on the small of the back," that is, slipping down in the
chair, bracing the shoulders against the chair-back, tends to injure
the nerves by pressure, and also to create a posterior curvature of
the spine.
Does it not seem unfortunate that we should allow ourselves even to
form such wrong habits of sitting and standing? And now we ask, How
shall we know when we are in a correct attitude?
We have comparatively few correct examples to imitate. I notice people
everywhere, and I see that old and young stand incorrectly. The head
is poked forward, the shoulders are rounded, the chest is flattened,
and the curve in the lower part of the back is straightened. The whole
figure is out of balance, and therefore not harmonious. Not only is
the beauty of the figure destroyed, but the internal organs are
displaced. Many a mother who sees her daughter thus growing
round-shouldered keeps telling her to throw her shoulders back; but to
follow this command only increases the difficulty. The shoulders are
not primarily at fault, but the trouble originates in non-use of the
front waist muscles. These muscles, weakened by disease because of
tight clothing and corset steels, and also by cramped positions in
school or at work, refuse to hold the body erect, and it "lops" just
at this point. This "lopping" disturbs the harmonious relation of the
weights of shoulders, abdomen, head, and the large lower gluteal
muscles with which nature has cushioned the lower part of the body,
and so they are obliged to readjust themselves to balance each other,
and the awkward, ungainly, unhealthful posture results.
What is needed is to restore the right relation of these weights and
all will again be harmonious. Do not interfere with the shoulders, but
straighten the front of the body by elevating the chest and raising
the head until it is supported directly on the spine, letting the
shoulders take care of themselves. If the abdomen is now held back and
the gluteal muscles raised, the beautiful curves of the spine will be
restored, the shoulders will be straightened, and the internal organs
will have a chance to resume their natural position.
A very easy way of finding out if you have the correct attitude is to
place your toes against the bottom of the door. Now bring your chest
up to touch the door, and throw the lower part of the spine backward
so that there will be a space between the abdomen and the door. Place
the head erect, with the chin drawn in towards the neck, and you will
have very nearly the correct attitude. It may seem a little tiresome
at first, because you will be apt to hold yourself in position with
needless tension of muscles, but you will soon learn to relax the
unnecessary tension, and then you will find the position the most
comfortable possible. You can walk farther without fatigue, and stand
longer without backache, because the body is placed in the attitude in
which all parts occupy their designed relation to each other.
One very important fact is that in the wrong attitude the abdominal
organs crowd down into the pelvis, while in the correct position they
are supported and kept from sagging, so that the matter of a correct
attitude is not only a matter of beauty, but also of health.
In sitting, also, the most comfortable posture is the most healthful;
that is, with the body squarely placed on the seat, and equally
supported upon the pelvis--not leaning back against the chair, unless
the chair should chance to be so constructed that it supports the
lower part of the back and keeps the body erect.