DISEASES OF WOMEN
Importance of Diseases of Women--The Beginning of Female
Disease--Ailing Women Are Inefficient--As Home-makers, as Wife,
as Mother--Few Ailing Women Become Pregnant--The Chief Cause of
Female Disease--The Existence of the Average Mother--Female
Diseases Are Avoidable--The Story of the Wife--Women Who Don't
Want Children--Abuse of the Procreative Function--What the
Woman with Female Disease Should Do--Cancer in Women--Cancer of
the Breast--Cancer of the Womb--What Every Woman Should Know
About Cancer--Change of Life--The Menopause--The
Climacteric--The Average Age at Which the Change of Life
Occurs--Symptoms of the Change of Life--Importance of a Correct
Diagnosis--Danger Signals of the Change of Life--Conduct During
the Change of Life.
No conscientious physician can give thought to this subject without
being profoundly stirred. It may justly be said that all types of
disease affecting the general health, the happiness, and the efficiency
of the people are equally important, and should elicit the same degree
and quality of kindly consideration. For many reasons this is not so, as
I will endeavor to show. The dominating reason which renders diseases of
women an exception to this rule may be mentioned here, however, so that
the reader will keep its supreme significance prominently in mind while
considering the subject in its various other aspects. "Diseases of
women" rank first as a eugenic problem. They have a direct and
far-reaching influence on posterity. They affect the environment of the
home and thereby the health and the efficiency of all concerned.
The diseases which form the basis of the statements in this article are
as follows: leucorrhea, displacements, or malpositions of the internal
organs; lacerations, ulcers, tumors, sexual incompetency, and the
venereal complications.
It is not possible or desirable to tabulate the symptoms which result
from these conditions. They would not convey to the average individual a
just picture or an intelligent summary of the life of a victim of these
ailments. An actual description of the life of a patient will be more
effective because it will depict the incidental domestic atmosphere in
which most of these patients live.
THE BEGINNING OF FEMALE DISEASE.--When a woman first begins to feel the
effects of so-called "female weakness" she is conscious of not feeling
"fit." She wonders what the matter is. She may not have actual pain at
this time, simply the consciousness that "she is not what she used to
be." Her work seems harder and more tedious, she worries without cause,
she begins the day with less energy and ambition than she used to, her
disposition is more uneven, more irritable and she tires easier and is
more willing to retire earlier than formerly. After a time she has more
or less undefined pains. It may be an occasional headache, or backache,
or she may have various severe neuralgic twinges. She gets nervous and
moody; her appetite is not good and she is troubled with constipation. A
little later, the general condition growing worse, her nervous system
suffers most. So she drifts into neurasthenia and has fits of crying and
periods of melancholia. She is more irritable, more impatient, more
dissatisfied with herself, her family, and her friends. She loses faith
in herself, in the future, and even in her religion, and she may
contemplate self-destruction.
There are thousands and thousands of just such women in the world, and
the pity is that many of them are mothers. It is surely self-evident
that these women must be failures as efficient factors in many ways.
NEUROPATHIC ANCESTRY[C]
[Illustration]
From a first glance at the chart it would appear that Daniel was an
accidental case of feeble-mindedness. His progenitors were, however,
decidedly neuropathic. The presence of apoplexy, paralysis, alcoholism
in a family should be watched for with vigilance because of their
possible effect upon the nervous system of the offspring.
[Illustration]
Parents would do well to scrutinize the man who "led a fast life" before
allowing him marry their daughter. The world would be shocked if it knew
how many men with disease enter into conjugal relations. David's father
had syphilis. David's feeble-mindedness was probably only one of the
awful results.
[Footnote C: "Feeble-mindedness; Its Causes and Consequences," Goddard,
The Macmillan Company.]
AILING WOMEN ARE INEFFICIENT
FIRST OF ALL AS HOME-MAKERS.--No woman can possibly be expected to
successfully conduct a home if she is not enjoying a reasonable degree
of good health. A home inefficiently supervised is an instrument for
evil. It engenders discord and discontent, and it is lacking in the
spirit which is essential to the cultivation of good-fellowship and
which encourages harmony.
AS WIFE.--Most men resent the burden and the discomfort and the expense
of an ailing wife, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. It is a
failing of the male species to be cursed with the inability to
understand any type of nervousness in a wife. Being inexplicable to him
he attributes the symptoms to an evil imagination or to a bad
disposition. He believes he is being imposed upon and proceeds to resent
it. Many homes are rendered permanently miserable and unhappy by a
failure to comprehend the real source of the trouble and to apply the
remedy. Being inefficient as a home-maker the wife is not able to carry
out her part as housekeeper. The home atmosphere is wrecked, the husband
seeks comfort and congenial fellowship elsewhere. His efficiency is
compromised and his earning capacity interfered with.
AS MOTHER.--Anyone familiar with the exacting obligations and
responsibilities of motherhood can well appreciate that normal health is
an essential requisite to its successful consummation. The success of
motherhood depends upon the proper exercise of many diversified
qualities, and those in turn primarily depend upon an adequate degree of
physical fitness, otherwise failure is certain to ensue. A woman,
therefore, cannot exercise her function of motherhood if she is a
neurasthenic.
Inasmuch as it has been proved that the regeneration of the race is
dependent upon the maintenance of mentally and physically fit mothers,
any condition that interferes with this standard is contrary to the
eugenic requirement. Children sent out into the word unfit physically or
morally are factors detrimental to the best interests of society and to
their own progress and prosperity. A mother rendered incapable through
sickness is, therefore, a menace to the home and to the eugenic promise.
FEW AILING WOMEN BECOME PREGNANT.--Nature fortunately seems to apprehend
the true condition because few of these women become pregnant. This
suggests an inquiry into the cause, or causes, underlying this
unfortunate situation.
Are women responsible for these ailments?
Most married women whose health is broken down by some disease peculiar
to their sex refer the commencement of their suffering to a confinement
or premature birth. The large majority of those women whose health is
affected, because of some "female weakness," suffer from a displacement,
or malposition of the internal organs, and as this condition is most
frequently a product of maternity, there would seem to be some
reasonable degree of justification for the assumption that the wrecked
health is the result of a legitimate physiological act, and consequently
a natural phenomenon. This is not, however, altogether true. A
displacement is not, under any circumstances, a natural process. It is
the result of causes which are avoidable. Most of them are the penalties
imposed by nature because of the infraction of her laws. We will not
consider those causes which have their beginning in wrong methods of
dress or conduct during the years prior to maternity. Many such cases
exist, but they are too few in number to justify consideration at this
time. They are frequent enough, however, to suggest to mothers that it
is always wise to keep a close watch over the tendencies and conduct of
their daughters.
THE CHIEF CAUSE OF FEMALE DISEASES.--When a woman has given birth to a
child her womb begins to contract and in a very brief space of time will
resume its normal position, provided nothing interferes with the
process. Nature will do exactly what is right if she is permitted to
work in her own way. In another part of this book I have explained why
it takes time for the recently pregnant womb to contract to its normal
size. There is a 600 per cent. increase in volume to be got rid of by
absorption. This takes time and nature can not be hurried without
"taking chances." This is just where the "cause" exists which we have
been looking for. Women do take chances.
Every woman should stay in bed for at least three weeks after
confinement and should spend another three weeks convalescing before she
assumes any domestic duty. This is a reasonable proposition when one
considers the actual situation. There is an enormous amount of
readjustment to be undertaken, and there is no way of hastening this
process. There is, however, a way to assist nature and to prevent
mistakes. That way is to remain in bed a sufficient length of time to
allow proper contraction of the womb. While the ligaments and muscles
are still lax, to not undertake any muscular effort that will overtax or
overstrain them,--a condition that favors displacement by weakening the
support of the womb. A woman cannot understand why she should stay in
bed when she feels well enough to get up. It is, however, unjust to
censure the sex on this account. I am convinced the fault lies with the
medical profession who do not take time to explain, in language which a
woman may understand, the important reasons why they should stay longer
in bed despite the fact that they do feel well.
THE EXISTENCE OF THE AVERAGE MOTHER.--In considering this subject it is
necessary to give some serious thought to the domestic and financial
circumstances of the thousands and thousands of average mothers. Every
observing, thinking person knows that the average mother's existence is
more or less of a never-ending tragedy. Physically, mentally, and
spiritually, they are victims of unalterable economic and social
exigencies. They are compelled, because of ignorance, to live an
unsanitary and unhygienic existence. The care of home and children, and
maybe the unappreciative and inconsiderate attention of a careless and
vindictive husband, add to the incidental worries,--fraying her nerves
and disposition,--of the ordinary routine of a cheerless, hopeless life.
Add to this experience the enormous drain of frequent child bearing upon
her vitality, and we have a picture with which every physician is
familiar.
Can such a woman possibly observe the essential rules of the hygiene of
pregnancy? Has she the time and the means to build up her reserve energy
and strength to competently undertake the duties of maternity or
motherhood? Is she physically fit to give birth to a child? After it is
all over can she devote the time to permit nature to do her share of the
physical readjustment? Can she afford, or will she be permitted to
remain in bed long enough to allow conditions to be favorable to
getting up without "taking a chance"? Inasmuch as her muscular tone is
poor, her strength depleted, her vitality wasted, her ambition and hope
at a low ebb, nature should be given a longer time, under the most
favorable hygienic and domestic conditions, to help in the problem of
readjustment, because her whole future, as an efficient machine, as
wife, as mother, as home-maker, and as an economic individuality, is
dependent upon how this crisis is met. This is the most important
problem which an enlightened civilization has before it. It is the
supreme eugenic task, and it is the most pressing and the most vital
question for statesmen to solve. No man can deny that the permanency of
the state is dependent upon the function of motherhood, yet motherhood
is conducted by unskilled labor--labor, the quality of which no business
would tolerate. We also know that the health of the workman has become
an economic problem. Capital finds that labor is of better quality, and
consequently more remunerative in every sense, if the environment is
conducive to happiness and health. Yet motherhood, the most important
labor in the world, upon which the very existence of the state depends,
in addition to being performed by unskilled labor, is undertaken by
physically unfit and frequently unwilling laborers, in an environment
which is a disgrace to civilization and which cannot be duplicated in
the whole realm of the brute world. This is the quality of labor, the
products of which constitute the state.
If anyone is disposed to believe that this is an over-drawn picture, let
him study the facts brought out in the recent patent medicine
investigation. It was found that one small, unimportant, quack medical
company had under treatment at one time (the day the government closed
it up) 200,000 women, suffering exclusively from female diseases. How
many similar cases must there be to support the large advertising
concerns, whose tentacles reach to the remotest corners of the country
and who limit their activity and cater to "diseases of women" only. Let
him also give some thought to the fact that no specialty in the whole
field of legitimate medical practice has grown with such enormous
strides, or is as remunerative to the ordinary physician as the
department of "diseases of women."
FEMALE DISEASES ARE AVOIDABLE.--If, as has been asserted, the great
majority of these ailments are traceable to causes which are avoidable,
what is the remedy? In one word it is "Enlightenment." We must educate
the ordinary mother who is so busy over her wash tubs and babies that
she has no time to seek information upon subject which she doesn't even
know exist, who does not even know how to feed her baby as well as the
scrubbiest cat does her kitten, who does not know what eugenics means
and is interested in it even less. We must stop limiting our talks to
theorizing in clubs and societies. We must carry the tidings to the
firesides of those hundreds of thousands of women who would listen and
act, but who do not know what to do or how to correct their faults.
There is another feature of this subject which should be recalled in
this connection. It has already been gone into in detail in the article
on eugenics. There are many thousands of women who are compelled to
fight the battle of life, upon whom an unjust disease has been grafted,
which is sapping their strength and vitality, and which they do not
appreciate or understand. Husbands infect wives unwittingly, wreck their
constitutions, blast their hope of ever having a child, and then heap
upon them abuse for an inability for which they are themselves directly
responsible. Many homes are desecrated in this way and the real culprit
is never suspected. Many women, who begin their married life under the
most auspicious conditions so far as physical fitness or temperamental
quality is concerned, have their health, and happiness, and success
utterly ruined, and after spending a miserable, wretched existence, have
their hope of maternity forever blasted on the operating table. The
story of "the wife" has never been told. It is God's riddle.
WOMEN WHO DON'T WANT CHILDREN.--Sometimes the woman is at fault. Many
young wives begin married life with the intention of not having a child
for a year or two. They don't want to be tied down too soon. They want
some fun themselves. They are willing to become the legal mistress of a
man, but they are not willing to assume the responsibilities of married
life. It is difficult to understand the ethics of this type of morality.
I have always given these young wives credit with simply not knowing
what they were doing. Either their education or their common sense is
lamentably deficient, or what is still worse, their mother was the wrong
kind of a woman. If these unfortunate young wives have no regard for the
cultivation of a good conscience, they should at least have some regard
for their own health. From a purely selfish standpoint,--the standpoint
of efficiency and success,--one would imagine these women would be
unwilling to risk their whole future physical welfare on the chance of
immunity--and it is a small chance.
ABUSE OF THE PROCREATIVE FUNCTION.--In order to carry out this
programme, various means are brought into requisition. In many cases I
have known the wife has compelled the husband to wear devices which
rendered conception impossible. This is a highly reprehensible
procedure. If continued for any length of time it will seriously affect
the husband's nervous system and general health, as this act is simply a
form of self-abuse. Any husband who will tolerate such imposition is
beginning married life wrong. He will pay a high price for his
complacency. Any woman who suggests or acquiesces in such an arrangement
is a moral degenerate and is absolutely unworthy of ever becoming a
mother.
Some women buy expensive and fantastic syringes and proceed to abuse
themselves with strong antiseptic solutions. This will result in killing
the sensitiveness of the terminal nerves and end in depriving themselves
of the pleasure with which a wise Providence endowed the procreative
act. If the element of sexual incompetency enters the home of a young
couple, it is the beginning of the end and each chapter of the story
will be a worse hell than the one just ended. The wise husband will see
that its cause will not be tolerated or begun in his family.
If pregnancy should unwittingly occur they do not hesitate to adopt
drastic means to "bring themselves around." They will procure some
prescription which may have gone the rounds as a "marvel" but which
always fortunately fails when they need it most. Thus they subject their
system to the shock of violent medication and lay up for themselves in
the future untold miseries. If these means fail, they go to "a woman
whom they know" who "brings them around." If these young wives only knew
what they were doing they could not be bought at any price to submit to
such surgical tragedies. The least probable result will be that when the
time arrives and circumstances are opportune to have a baby, and when it
is their dearest wish to be a mother, they will discover that they no
longer possess the ability to conceive. Many homes have been rendered
childless in just this way. You cannot violate the laws of nature
without paying the penalty in some way, and it is usually a sad
reckoning.
WHAT THE WOMAN WITH FEMALE DISEASE SHOULD DO.--To those wives who are
suffering with "female weakness," or who are in poor health without
apparent or known cause, I would strongly advise a visit to their family
physician or to an expert in diseases of women. Tell him exactly how you
feel and submit to a thorough examination. Most of the diseases of women
are readily curable, and if treated right all the symptoms which have
rendered life miserable will disappear. It may be stated with the
strongest emphasis, however, that no treatment from an advertising
concern, or any patent medicine ever made, will in any sense cure any of
these ailments. Every cent invested in any of these nostrums is money
wasted. Medicine by the mouth is never necessary to affect a cure of the
actual ailment. A physician will doubtless prescribe a tonic for your
general rundown condition. But even this would totally fail if the cause
of the ill health was not removed, and this necessitates an examination
and special local treatment. For any advertising concern to assert that
it can tell what ails a patient by simply filling out a symptom blank is
utter nonsense. It is worse. It is obtaining money under false
pretenses, and should be punishable by imprisonment at hard labor for a
long term.
CANCER IN WOMEN
My only object in referring to this disease is to direct the attention
of women to its symptoms.
The only cure for cancer at the present time is the knife. If the
disease can be reached it can be cured, if taken in hand early.
In women, cancer occurs most frequently in the breast and in the womb.
CANCER OF THE BREAST.--Of all the tumors which affect the breast, cancer
is the most frequent. Any tumor in the breast of a woman forty years of
age or more is quite likely to be a cancer. A tumor (or lump) which has
remained small for years and then begins to grow rapidly has changed its
type and become cancerous. Many such tumors change in this way during
the "change of life." Any tumor of the breast, at any age, which remains
despite effort to dissipate it should be removed by operation. A
physician is not justified in assuring a woman that a lump in the breast
is harmless. It should be cut into and examined to positively decide its
character. Early operation of tumors of the breast has greatly reduced
the percentage of deaths from cancer.
CANCER OF THE WOMB.--Occasional slight hemorrhages becoming more
frequent, and later more abundant and offensive, constitute one of the
first symptoms of cancer of the womb. Between the actual bleedings there
is a discharge resembling dish-water. This discharge has a foul odor.
Pain is as a rule a late symptom. Sometimes a severe pain extending into
the hip or abdomen is an early symptom but it is very infrequent. Every
woman over thirty who has a persistent leucorrhea, or any irregularity
of the menstrual function, should be examined for cancer.
WHAT EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CANCER.--Inasmuch as cancer is
curable if taken early, every woman should take steps to be on the safe
side.
If cancer is not taken early, it is certain death. A very large number
die who could have been saved.
Every lump in the breast should be positively diagnosed by cutting into
it and examining it. It would be safer to remove every tumor of the
breast at an early date.
Any discharge from the privates of a woman which has a bad or foul odor
is suspicious; any irregular bleeding is more than suspicious. Any woman
having these symptoms should be examined by a competent physician. Every
woman over thirty-five years of age should be examined by a physician
every six months. No woman should enter the change of life without a
very thorough examination. Cancer is a disease which does not permit
"taking a chance" with. It is far better to be certain, since it is
curable if caught early, than to find out about it when too late,
because, "too late" means death.
"CHANGE OF LIFE." THE MENOPAUSE
The average period of life during which a woman menstruates is from
thirty to thirty-two years. When this period is about to expire she
enters what is termed the "change of life," or the menopause, or the
climacteric.
The average age at which "change of life" occurs in this country is
about the forty-sixth year. It may normally occur, however, at any time
between the fortieth and fiftieth year. There are cases on record when
it has occurred earlier than the fortieth and later than the fiftieth
year. When menstruation in a girl begins early, the menopause occurs
late. On the other hand, if a girl does not have her regular monthly
periods until she is older than usual,--about the eighteenth or
twentieth year,--the "change of life" will set in at a very early age.
Women who are victims of certain exhausting diseases, as, consumption,
Bright's disease of the kidney, diabetes, or whose health is poor
because of general physical debility from any cause, or who have had a
large number of children in rapid succession, enter the "change of life"
earlier than they otherwise would if their health was good. In women who
are excessively fat the menopause is apt to occur at an early age. On
the other hand disease of the generative organs, or the presence of
tumors of the womb may retard the process. Women in the higher walk of
life, those living in cities those who do not labor or exercise
sufficiently will enter this period at an earlier date than those who
live in the country, who work and are physically more healthy.
SYMPTOMS OF "CHANGE OF LIFE."--When the menopause begins, the monthly
periods are less profuse, the flow is scanty. As the months pass,
menstruation becomes less and less until it ceases entirely. In a
certain number of cases it stops abruptly and never appears again.
Sometimes a period misses altogether, or a number of periods are passed
over without any sign of menstruation, after which it may reappear
either as a scanty flow, or as a profuse discharge. This may be followed
for a number of months by irregular appearances of the menstrual
phenomenon and then by its total cessation.
These may be the only symptoms or signs of the "change of life," and
this is the normal state if the health is good. It cannot, however, be
said that this is the average experience. Unfortunately the women of the
present time do not live lives which conduce to robust health at this
period of life. We find as a rule that the general health is below par.
So they suffer from headache, "flushes," digestive disturbances, and
many nervous symptoms which appear to be directly caused by the process
through which they are passing. The "flushes" are disagreeable
experiences. They consist of a feeling of heat which spreads over the
entire body as if the blood was rushing to the surface and to the head.
These flushes are followed by sweating and chilly sensations. The
nervous symptoms may be quite marked. The woman loses her interest in
the daily happenings. She may have mental vagaries, she is irritable and
often melancholy and periods of seeming insanity may occur.
IMPORTANCE OF A CORRECT DIAGNOSIS.--It is a mistake to attribute every
symptom a woman may have at this time of life to the menopause. She is
just as liable to develop conditions at this time, which she would at
any age, and which have no relation to the "change of life." Every
symptom should, therefore, be carefully investigated, because serious
conditions may complicate the menopause, and if attributed to it and
neglected, may end disastrously.
During the "change of life," the generative organs become smaller or, as
it has been termed, "dry up." The breasts also are involved in the
shrinking process. It is quite a common experience for women to "lay on"
fat, to become "flabby," at this age.
It is important that women should become familiar with the ordinary
symptoms of the "change of life," in order that they may be constantly
on guard against conditions that may indicate danger. Medical
investigation has conclusively proved that many women lose their lives
because they regarded the presence of certain symptoms as common to the
"change of life." There is a tendency to disease at this time which must
be intelligently considered, and if women are not posted to note unusual
signs or symptoms they may neglect or ignore them, only to find when too
late that these signs and symptoms were no part of the "change of life."
THE DANGER SIGNALS OF THE CHANGE OF LIFE.--There are certain "danger
signals" which should warn every woman that something is amiss, these
are:--
(1) Profuse bleeding during the process of the "change."
(2) Bleeding occurring between the regular menstrual periods.
(3) The reappearance of slight bleedings or hemorrhages after
menstruation has ceased for a number of months.
These symptoms are always suggestive of the presence of conditions that
should not exist. They may indicate cancer, or some less serious
condition that is amenable to cure by prompt and efficient treatment.
Inasmuch as they may mean the beginning of cancer,--as explained in the
preceding chapter on cancer, and which should be read in this
connection,--immediate steps should be taken to find out the actual
facts. Delay means death if it is cancer, while the most recent
statistics show that in many cases a complete cure is possible if the
surgeon gets the case early.
CONDUCT DURING "CHANGE OF LIFE."--When a woman enters the "change of
life" she is approaching a crisis that demands the most conscientious
attention on her own part, and the sincerest consideration by all around
her. She has reached the time of life when she owes herself something,
and if she is wise she will willingly pay the debt. If she is not in
good health she must make every effort to regain it promptly, even if
radical measures must be employed in doing so. Nothing will contribute
to her mental and physical comfort more than robust health during this
period.
She must employ every hygienic measure that experience has taught us
contributes to our well being. She must live an outdoor life as much as
possible, taking sufficient exercise to keep the muscles and bodily
functions in good condition. If she cannot exercise enough she should
sit out of doors, dressed in seasonable clothing, and she should make up
the deficiency in exercise by employing a competent masseuse. A thorough
massage twice a week is sufficient. If her physician recommends an
occasional Turkish bath it is a desirable aid as it helps the skin to
throw off any excess of waste matter that may be circulating in the
blood.
The home environment of these women should be congenial, and they should
be relieved of the work and worry incident to domestic life. The nervous
condition demands this degree of consideration, and the husband should
make it his business to see that the wife, who has toiled to aid him
during all the long years of married companionship, is accorded every
possible help through the most trying and important period of her life.
It is not to be understood, however, that she should be left without
occupation. It is possible to indulge in congenial work which will
occupy her time and attention without overtaxing her strength or fraying
her nerves. A certain amount of amusement is desirable, and helps to
tide over periods that might lag and encourage introspection and worry.
An entire change of scenery and surroundings. A visit to the seashore or
to the mountains is to be commended.
During this period the diet should be simple and the bowels should be
kept open regularly. Inasmuch as these patients frequently suffer from
digestive disturbances, it is wise to refrain from those articles of
diet that ordinarily cause indigestion. Such articles are, sweet dishes,
pies, pastries, candies, fresh bread, fried food, sugars, and the
relishes and seasoning extras which constitute the et ceteras of the
table. Meat should never be taken to excess, alcohol and all stimulants
are to be avoided. Water may be taken freely to advantage.
THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL