METHODS
There are certain points in regard to methods of preventing conception
which should be made clear.
It is, of course, obvious that conception can be voluntarily
controlled by abstention from intercourse except when children are
desired. This has been called a counsel of perfection. It could only
rightly be so described where such a method of life was both desired
and approved by both husband and wife. It would not be a fair thing
for either to enforce a practically celibate life on the other without
the fullest understanding and consent before the marriage vows were
taken.
But conception can also be controlled by avoidance of those parts of
the monthly cycle in which conception most commonly takes place. That
in the great majority of women there is a time in the monthly cycle
when no conception occurs has been noted for a long time. The
rough-and-ready method of reckoning the date of birth in relations to
the last menstrual period is an example of the assumption that
conception will probably have taken place a week later, and the
frequency with which such reckoning is justified shows that it is not
altogether unfounded. During the war it was possible to make some more
exact observations owing to the short leave granted to soldiers to
visit their homes. Seigel has published a paper in the "Münchener
Medizinische Wochenschrift," 1916, in which he gives information
regarding the conception of between two and three hundred children
born during the war. He finds that the likelihood of fertilisation
increases from the first day of menstruation, reaching the highest
point six days later, the fertile period remains almost at the same
height till the 12th or 13th day, and then declines gradually until
the 22nd day, after which there is absolute sterility.
This suggests that conception control can be attained without
artificial methods if intercourse is confined to one week in the
month.
Such control of conception, though natural, does not make it any more
desirable to space the births unduly so that the children are brought
up in separate units instead of in a happy family group in which they
can share games and interests--but it does avoid the risks which are
associated with artificial methods of conception control.
It is not proposed to discuss in detail artificial methods in this
pamphlet, because no advice can be wisely given on this subject in a
general way. Those who after careful consideration choose to use
artificial means to prevent child-bearing will be wise if they consult
their medical attendant as to those methods which are least harmful
for their individual case, and ask for careful instruction in their
use.
Most of the methods so widely advertised are productive of diseased
conditions, whether from the nature of the method itself or from the
way in which it is used, and all of those recommended to women
interfere with normal physiological processes. The object aimed at in
methods recommended to women, is either to produce, by drugs or
otherwise, conditions in the vagina inimical to the life of the male
cell, or to prevent by mechanical means the reception of the semen
into the uterus. Owing to the uncertainty in the results of either of
the above methods of prevention, the later editions of books which
teach conception control now advocate the use of both methods at the
same time in order to approximate more closely to certainty of result.
All these artificial preparations for intercourse demand from the
woman an investigation of and interference with her own internal
organs, which is revolting to all decent women, and such teaching is
directly opposed to the advocacy of cleanliness and non-interference
with the genital organs, which is the natural habit of healthy-minded
women.
The effects, however, go further than this. Nature has provided in the
healthy vaginal secretions an antidote to infection which quickly
destroys harmful germs. If the natural secretions are altered it is
difficult to restore them to their natural quality.
Professor Arthur Thomson, F.R.C.S., has shewn ("British Medical
Journal," January 7th, 1922) from observations of the lining of the
womb in animals and in women that "the weight of evidence goes to
prove that its function is more likely to be absorbent than excretive,
and that as such it plays an important part in the animal economy."
After describing at length the evidence that the male secretion
consists largely of the secretions from special glands as well as the
sex cells, he refers to the fact that these are all largely received
into and absorbed by the glands of the womb, and he discusses the
probability that such absorption profoundly and beneficially affects
the physiological reaction in the woman. He points out that the use of
artificial checks "while preventing fertilisation may also be the
means of depriving the female of certain secretions which may exercise
a far reaching influence on her economy"; and he concludes, "As a rule
we cannot interfere with the normal course of nature without some
consequent evil result. May this not be an instance in which for some
apparent gain in one direction, the woman pays the penalty?"