The numerous nervous disturbances of the climacteric epoch would appear also to depend upon the hyperplasia of the ovarian stroma which we have observed to be the characteristic anatomical change in the ovaries at this period of life.
Fig. [90].
Associated with the fibrous transformation of the graafian follicles there is, however, a failure of the so-called internal secretion of the ovaries, a matter to which much attention has recently been paid. Brown-Séquard has especially maintained that the ovaries secrete a substance which enters the blood, a substance which, notwithstanding the fact that its presence cannot be proved either by chemical or any other means known to us, yet is of considerable importance for the maintenance of the equilibrium of mental and physical well-being. It is supposed that the various profound disturbances of the general system occurring at the menopause[[52]] are dependent upon the cessation of this internal secretion of the ovary—disturbances which rise to a maximum as the atrophy of the ovary proceeds, and which only gradually pass away after a considerable lapse of time.
After the menopause is completely over, in the ovaries, as in other parts of the female reproductive organs, the signs of senile degeneration make their appearance.
In old women, we find the ovaries either shrunken to the form of small fibrous cords, or else degenerated to form cysts of smaller or larger size, the stroma surrounding these cysts being extremely hard, dense, and tough.
Fig. [91].
Fig. [92].—Sagittal section through the Cervix of a woman 26 years of age. Dendriform branched Glands.