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"We, therefore, find that the female, notwithstanding her greater affectibility by minor stimulus, more youthful, more resistant to adverse influences, and longer lived than the male." |
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| This essentially optimistic extract from Sex and the Love-Life by William J Fielding (1927) is notable for having no "cures" to offer - and therefore no need to portray menopause as a time of disease and horror. In contrast to today's view, the "change" did not cause increasing heart attack but simply coincided with it - and women continued to be ahead of men in virtually all health-related aspects. |
| Ignorance = fear | The ignorance of people generally regarding the nature of the climacteric has been responsible for untold worry and fear of consequences incident to this period. Even some otherwise excellent works on the subject tend to create an unwarranted fear by implying that many cases of disease occurring at this time are the logical or inevitable result of the change, instead of being due to a disease already existing or to hereditary or other predisposing factors. In the general stirring up of the organism at the menopause, of course, latent diseases may be revived and assert themselves. |
| Knowledge = power | By the very nature of a discussion of the climacteric, it is necessary to mention certain disorders and diseases that are associated with this period. However, it should always be stressed that untold numbers of women go through the experience with only slight inconvenience and no real ill health, and most of the others would have done better had they the benefit of some constructive counsel. It is with a knowledge based on long experience, and tempered with wisdom, that Dr. Bernard Hollander (1) says : "Nature is kind to the majority of women and has imperceptibly prepared the system for the change, so that the crisis is passed through with comparatively little trouble." |
| New
sources of vitality -
better off than men |
The fact is that, after the menopause, women as a rule find new sources of vitality working to their advantage. A woman who has lived a healthy life up to the climacteric has the expectation, normally, of many more years before her. Indeed, from the standpoint of longevity, women are more fortunately situated than men, as they live longer and also show greater resistance to disease and major shock. The majority of sudden deaths from internal causes are among men. Different authorities estimate that this form of mortality is about 75 per cent greater among men than women. |
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Not only do women as a rule live longer than men, but they have a greater constitutional tendency to the preservation of youthful characteristics as is indicated by the less frequency with which they exhibit the common indications of old age. Degenerative diseases of the arteries, with their far-reaching effects, are less prevalent in elderly women than in elderly men. Van den Velden maintains that women withstand degeneration better than men. This is in accord with the observation that elderly women are much less subject to sudden death from internal causes than men, as this form of attack may be regarded as a manifestation of degenerative diseases either of the arteries or of the heart. |
| Less mental derangement | The mental derangements of the aged are also more commonly manifested in men than in women. Ellis states there is reason to believe that old age produces relatively less loss of brain tissue in women than in men. |
| More youthful | It is H. Sellheim's opinion
that "women possess a greater innate recuperative power."
Ellis concludes, "We, therefore, find that the female notwithstanding her greater affectibility by minor stimulus more youthful, more resistant to adverse influences, and longer lived than the male." |
| Far from passe | This short resume of some of the natural advantages which women possess, and which become more marked on sex lines as she grows into the fulness of years, should be a bulwark of encouragement to the woman who has possessed the notion that with the climacteric she becomes passe or thinks she suffers in comparison with her husband, and that he may tire of her on account of her lost youth. Physically, the advantages are on her side, as the authorities quoted have pointed out. If she permits herself to regress mentally, that is another matter. |
| Height of powers | The reproductive period must terminate some time, and it perhaps is well that nature has selected the time it has for the change in woman's life, which connotes the end of her procreative activities. At this stage, woman is normally at the height of her physical and mental efficiency. Her recuperative capacity and powers for conservation are at their best. The tissues are fully developed and stable, and the metabolism seasoned. |
| Climacteric not to blame | It is true that only too often excessive child-bearing, over-work or disease, has wreaked havoc upon a woman's constitution, and left a pitiable travesty of normal womanhood. This situation, however, presents another problem - or many other problems, individual and social - and is not in itself a matter chargeable to the climacteric. |
| Thin
women suffer more
Smoother sailing ahead |
An emaciated woman is generally subject to particular hardship at the time of the menopause, but when it is over, even she may find life taking a smoother course than before, and experience a new and welcome peace. The agonies and worries of child-bearing and the fear of pregnancies are past, and if she is not forced to toil too hard, the less arduous post-climacteric period will prove a boon to her indeed. |
| (1) Nervous Disorders of Women 1916 |