Disorders of menstruation / By Edward W. Jenks.

  • Jenks, Edward W. (Edward Watrous), 1833-1903.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Disorders of menstruation / By Edward W. Jenks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    anterior wall. The nerves supplying the canal around the OS internum are enclosed and pressed upon by this hardened tissue and the fluxion consequent upon the menstrual nisus increases the pressure to a degree which results in severe pain. In other cases of dys- menorrhoea, for which the same treatment, that remains to be described, is applicable, the uterus is not fully developed; its neck is pointed and indurated, with frequently one lip longer than the other, and there is often an anteflexion of its body. In such uteri, if a sound or probe is passed into the canal, there is, as a rule, hyperaesthesia at the os internum the same in character as in uteri that are enlarged. In both classes above mentioned, to relieve pres- sure and diminish hyperaesthesia an excellent result is obtained by forcible dilatation; this is partially due to the revulsive effect of stretching over-sensitive nerves and partially to producing absorption of indurated tis- sue and thereby liberating confined nervules. For this purpose, the Sims or Ellinger dilator with diverg- ing branches, or Peaslee's (Fig. 9), (for slight dila- tation), or Hank's dilators with their various sized bulbs may be employed. The dilatation can frequently be made without the aid of an anaesthetic, but in some cases the region about the os internum possesses such an hyperaesthesia as to necessitate its use. Occasionally an anaesthetic is required on account of the nervousness or timidity of patients.