The Cure for Women by Lydia Reeder

Author:Lydia Reeder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

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Jacobi then analyzed the results of her questionnaire. Of the thousand distributed by Baker and others, 268 were returned, an acceptable number. They came from a varied cross-section of American women. Performing extensive statistical calculations using simple averages, Jacobi evaluated the relationships among her questions, divided respondents into categories, and standardized their responses. Then she took these self-reports from women and inserted them into her report, thus adding, for the first time, women’s stories to the medical record.

In one table, Jacobi correlated the respondents’ general health with the number of miles that they walked daily. Answers to the question about general health included “Very fine,” “Mens. this morning. Some pain of steady character,” “Good. Sick headache,” and “Good until child bearing.” They reported miles walked daily as “Long dist.,” “2–3,” “Four miles till after 2nd child,” “All day,” and “20 miles.”

Next, she reported facts about menstruation and menstrual pain. While 65 percent of respondents suffered varying degrees of menstrual pain, from almost nothing to fairly severe, a full 35 percent reported suffering no pain at all. She correlated these answers with amount of exercise, family history, education, and occupation. Jacobi found that immunity from menstrual suffering did not depend on rest but on a healthy childhood, proper exercise, a sound education, marriage at a “suitable” time (when she was old enough to make her own decisions), and a steady occupation.

Overall, the survey portrayed American women as active, healthy, and industrious; women with “excellent” health who walked five to twenty miles a day were not likely to be incapacitated by menstruation. They were the opposite of fragile. She used their voices to counteract Clarke’s paternal and condescending style of reporting so-called true stories about his unstable, sickly, and feminine patients. Jacobi’s firsthand reports were more authoritative than Clarke’s personal stories about his handful of patients could ever be.

She concluded this section by stating, “Rest during menstruation cannot be shown, from our present statistics, to exert any influence in preventing pain, since, when no pain existed, [rest] was rarely taken.” She noted one exception: working-class women, those who labored in the fields or factories and were on their feet for hours. Depending on the job conditions, these women might require extra rest during menstruation, but for the most part, too much rest was injurious. In fact, because women experienced a buildup of nutritional reserves during menstruation, Jacobi argued that it was actually a time of “increased vital energy,” not sickness.

To prove this assertion and demonstrate the wave theory of women’s reproduction, Jacobi did further research on a small number of subjects at the New York Infirmary. In a section titled “Experimental,” she tracked their cycles, measured pulse rates, took their temperatures, and determined their strength.

She began the section by stating her premise: “On the hypothesis that the menstrual period represents the climax in the development of a surplus of nutritive force and material, we should expect to find a rhythmic wave of nutrition gradually rising from a minimum point just after menstruation, to a maximum just before the next flow.

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