A little eleven-year-old girl raising her hand, asked: “Is it not eating too much candy?” The rest of the girls laughed. But I replied, “You need not smile; this young lady has sounded the keynote of your trouble. It is not only too much candy, but you eat too freely of the carbonaceous foods, fats and sweets, without taking sufficient exercise to have them appropriated. Inflammation is the result and hence suffering ensues.”
Treatment for dysmenorrhea must be palliative and curative. No young girl should be allowed to endure this pain. It gives a shock to the nervous system, which sooner or later will act upon her general health, and depreciate her vitality.
In palliative treatment it has been customary to use alcoholic stimulant in some form. Symptoms at first are relieved, the blood being caused to flow to the surface, thus lessening congestion. The patient is made perhaps not actually drunk, but is stupefied. My observation, however, is that menstrual pain removed by this agency, recurs more severely at subsequent periods. The reason of this must be that the alcoholic stimulant increases the already inflamed condition. It is not good treatment.
The application of heat in some form will safely relieve almost any case. A relay of hot lamp chimneys is available in sudden attacks, even if at night; or a hot plate or stove-lid, wrapped in cloths is excellent in an emergency. In more severe cases, use hot fomentations (Page 114) or the hot water bottle.
A hot sitz-bath (Page 184) is the best resort where cramp-like symptoms with vomiting or fainting are experienced, or where the patient is threatened with spasms. Anticipate suffering by this treatment as soon as indicated by premonitory symptoms. Continue the bath until a copious perspiration is induced, probably from thirty minutes to an hour. Then rub off lightly without exposure, keeping wrapped in the blankets, and applying the hot water bottle, lie quietly for some time. Many who ordinarily suffer from three to five days can be relieved in one hour by this means alone. This course will prevent a recurrence of so severe an attack.
The curative measures employed must accord with the pathological condition of the patient. For local ailments, treatments must be that indicated for them; neuralgia and rheumatism will demand their own suitable remedial agents.
A lady, thirty-five years of age, had been for a long time a great sufferer at every menstrual period, five or six days being spent in bed each month. There was apparently no uterine disease. Ordinary treatment proved ineffectual. A casual inquiry at length disclosed the fact that she had long been afflicted with rheumatism, not confined to any locality. This gave a clue to her case, and a short treatment for this affection resulted in entire recovery from both that malady and the distressing menstrual attacks. The thermal bath (Page 118) was mainly depended on in her cure.
Local treatment or remedies will seldom be found necessary, if the whole system is kept in the best hygienic condition. A young woman had for nine years been a martyr to dysmenorrhea, spasms attending every period, often continuing for days. Like the woman in Scripture, “She had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,” having had in all nine doctors, one of whom had performed a severe operation. Although still young, she was almost a perfect wreck. She had no strength for manual labor, often being unable to walk across the room. Her mental condition was equally deplorable, being scarcely able to do for herself. She was very sensitive to the cold, and consequently wore much heavy clothing suspended around her hips.
In her case few remedies were used. She was induced to make a radical change in her dress, and put upon a thorough course of exercises adapted to develop and invigorate the muscles of the abdomen, and insure a healthy action of the viscera. She was also encouraged to assist daily in light housework, with much free exercise in the open air.
The change was marvelous. Upon the recurrence of her next period, a hot sitz-bath was administered at the first symptoms of distress, and relief was speedy. Her improvement steadily continued; she was no longer agonized with pain and subject to convulsions. Before the three months of her treatment had expired, she was entirely restored to health.