THE CHANGE OF LIFE.
Fanciful writers have sometimes indulged in poetic strains, depicting the changes of this season, as being very unfavorable to the personal attraction of woman. It is said, “that the bosom and cheeks become flaccid, the skin is wrinkled and appears to be too large, and loses its delicateness; the eyes sink in their orbits; the carnation of the cheeks is supplanted by a yellow tint; that empurpled flush which once, amid smiles, sat on her rosy lips, is chased away by a bluish or leaden hue. Every circumstance proclaims that the season of the pleasures is past, and that she can no longer rely on the attractions peculiar to her sex.”
This delineation is by far more fanciful than true; and it oftener happens that, in consequence of the pernicious habits of civic and civilized life, changes as great, and often greater than these, occur at a much earlier date than this critical period, so called. Were the laws of life and health reasonably observed, there could no sudden or considerable change take place at any one time in life. As middle age merges into the more advanced, so, gradually and imperceptibly, comes on the riper and more mature state, before which woman does not arrive at the full time of her dignity, and the full period of the magnitude of her moral power.
But it must be admitted that there are in some cases reasons why the time of cessation of the menstrual function should be called the “critical period,” or the “turn of life.” Thus, with the beginning of suppression, or cessation, there may occur swelling of the abdomen, nausea, sickness, and loathing of food, as in pregnancy.
The imagination, too, may have something to do with this matter, for it is doubtless true, that some women “have such a dislike to age, that they would rather persuade themselves that they are with child, than suppose they are feeling any of the consequences of growing old.”
I ought here to mention, that in those cases where pregnancy does not exist, the abdomen is softer and more equally enlarged, and swells more speedily after the obstruction than it does from real pregnancy.
Some persons are, at this period, so imaginative, as even to believe that they actually experience motions of the child, whereas there is only wind or flatulency in the bowels, which, by rumbling, or shifting from place to place, causes a sensation analogous to that of the motions of a real child. Some persons have even gone so far in this matter as to believe that they had passed through the entire period of pregnancy, and have called physicians and attendants, believing that labor had actually began. And some physicians, even, have remained many hours with these patients, when at last it has been discovered, to the great mortification of all concerned, that one important feature was yet wanting, in order for labor to take place, namely, the presence in the mother’s womb of an actual child.
This change of life, I remarked, is a natural occurrence to every woman. It is as natural for menstruation to cease as it is for it to begin. Were the habits of society such as they should be, health, and health only, would be the natural result in all these changes; but such is not always the case. Some are barren and unhealthy, and have not vital stamina enough for them ever to gain truly firm and enduring health. Others, too, and probably a far greater number, have their health destroyed, either by the ignorance of their parents or themselves, or of both combined. In such cases, some of the following symptoms may be noticed. If any organic disease is already present, with many it appears to be aggravated or increased. This is especially true in diseases of the womb and the breasts. It seems, indeed, that cancer of these organs is more apt to become developed about this time. Symptoms of dyspepsia are apt to be aggravated. Some become more corpulent, and as corpulency is a state of disease, more or less general debility, and inaptitude for walking and physical exertion of whatever kind, is experienced. There appears also, at this time, to be with many a greater tendency to inflammatory disease, diarrhea, dysentery, cholera morbus, or, on the other hand, a constipated state of the bowels; or the constipation may alternate, with one or more of the former complaints.
But, as I have already remarked, there are other cases in which the health becomes, in every respect, more firmly established and better after menstruation has ceased, than it was before.