TROUBLES OF THE CHANGE OF LIFE


Glonoin and Trinitrin covered all these alarming symptoms and speedily enabled her to face her long columns of figures with renewed energy. Only in cases of absolute emergencies should a surgeon be sent for. the poor woman is mutilated unnecessarily and suffers endless pain.


As we are on the subject of life headaches, my mind recalls the case of another victim of this distressing complaint of the “foolish forties”. She had very exacting work to do which demanded close mental application. One hot Summer she was extremely bothered with bursting headaches, which she described to me as follows: “Surging pulsations and hammering of the head, nearly driving her frantic, much worse in the warm room and heat of the sun, relieved by opening the window, cannot lie down in bed, has to sit up in bed in order to get any sleep at all. She got very scared, too, by attacks of palpitations on going uphill.

Glonoin and Trinitrin covered all these alarming symptoms and speedily enabled her to face her long columns of figures with renewed energy. These menopausal disturbances may require any one of the more common remedies, a choice of some forty odd drugs is mentioned in the large repertories under the rubric “Menopause alone, and that does not include all the medicines you may have to study in order to really and truly cure the individual.

Now let us tackle another very common and even more crippling symptom, namely, haemorrhage. May God help the unfortunate creature who is unlucky enough to fall in to the hands of the common run of medical practitioners. Far be it from me to condemn them. They are very worthy men and women; alas, they have not seen the light, and the large majority have no desire to search for it even. They are like the blind leading the blind. Now this is the typical sequence of events: a professional women depending on her own earning to keep herself was seriously incapacitated by what is technically called Menorrhagia.

For a long time she was dosed with Ergot, nearly the only remedy the orthodox practitioners know for haemorrhage. When this was found to be less than useless she was handed over to the mercies of the but I beg your pardon I meant to say surgeon, and he curetted her first. Later the trouble still persisting, she was placed on the operating table again and robbed of most of her reproductive organs. She was ill for months after this, recuperating from this cruel and quite unnecessary shock to her constitution.

If this woman had been under the care of Homoeopathic physician, she would have been saved endless expense, suffering, and her health would have been a hundredfold better. An extravagant claim, you say yes, maybe but the homoeopathic literature is full of more marvellous cures than this comparatively simple one of curing and stopping haemorrhages.

There are twenty two remedies given in the repertory under “Haemorrhages in the Climacteric Period”, and most of them work in record time, provided the patient is willing to give her co- operating and allows the doctor or Homoeopathic lay person to take a full history of her symptoms. The minutest details are essential and, as I said before, a cure can be guaranteed. Any of the remedies already mentioned may be needed. The menorrhagic patient may require sulphur and then you would find sulphur symptoms. Or she many need Lachesis, and then she would present you with Lachesis symptoms.

A long time ago I met a Lachesis patient with a hemorrhagic history. She had a lot to say for herself as all the Lachesis individuals, she had the bursting heads I have already described, she was hypersensitive to touch, the face was somewhat mottled, she suffered from the heart, suffocated in a warm room, and uterine haemorrhage was dark, almost black. All her symptoms would clear up with the haemorrhage, that is, one day she would be losing, she would be free from headache, that next day she had hear headache, but no haemorrhage.

So she was miserable the whole time. After a few short weeks on Lachesis her tale had changed to a Jubilate; she took up her old life and her old duties with renewed zest, she had been practically an invalid for a long time part. and the cost to her was negligible, no expensive operation, no prolonged convalescence. How much more preferable, dont you think?.

I have not mentioned a Sepia patient so far, which is somewhat remiss of me, as Sepia is so often indicated in womens complaints. The uterine haemorrhage is generally associated with prolapse of the organ, down bearing pains, they are usually tall, thin people, easily depressed, cold and frigid and spiteful, tired of affection, disliking sympathy. You see women like this almost every day in every walk of life.

With it all they have a peculiar complexion, a yellowish brown discoloration on the face and a yellow, across the nose. If you met such a woman, you can bet your bottom dollar that she wants a dose of Sepia, and that Sepia will put an end to all her suffering. I for one should not like to be without Sepia. It does valiant work for us women, young or old.

We must not forget Calcarea carbonica either. You did not know that lime was a valuable ally to the homoeopathic physician, did you ? Calcarea carbonica women are pale, flabby folk, relaxed and cold and reserved. Usually they have been busy people who have become tired through overwork.

One calls to mind several people suffering from heavy and continuous haemorrhages during the change, and hardly any body bleeds as much as a patient who needs Calcarea carbonica. Their symptoms point to Calcarea carbonica. They received a few doses of lime, they lost their chalky look and their Muscles firmed up all round, the haemorrhage eased up, too, and the surgeon poor fellow went without a job.

At the present moment I have a patient who has been doing a surgeon out of his fee. Her remedy was, and still is Nux vomica. She has been bleeding profusely, just a continual ooze, she is very sensitive to her surroundings, very irritable, in fact, irascible, always quarreling with colleagues, terribly easily offended; she feels the cold so much and dislikes a draught of air, as for her dyspepsia, that is quite a curse to her, it is always with her, severe pain about an hour after food, always talking various things for constipation.

A short course of Nux vomica, and she becomes sweeter tempered, and the bleeding is gone. You see, it is quite easy to recognize the Nux patient.

There are several easy to recognize which might be called for during the climacteric haemorrhages, such as Sabina. In Sabina cases the blood is bright red, she has got violent pain shooting up from the sacrum to the front or from the fork upwards to the navel; if you get a woman with these pains and the bright red fluid blood, dont let the doctor give heel Ergot, as he is sure to suggest, but try a few doses of Sabina, and you will be surprised how soon the bleeding will stop.

In fact the patient will probably think that stopped on its own account. Sabina is an acute remedy, and if the haemorrhage recurs again and again, you will require what is called a chronic drug, such as sulphur, Calcarea, etc., according to the symptoms.

The climacteric woman who requires Crocus has quite different symptoms. She is rather hysterical, has haemorrhages with dark clots, and a feeling of weight in the lower part of her abdomen, so strongly marked that she is certain that she is again about to become a mother, and nothing that you or any other doctor can say will convince her that this is not so. “But, doctor, I feel the baby move.” This mother booked with the nurse in spite of all I said to persuade her to the contrary. She had some few doses of Crocus and she forgot her previous delusion and countermanded the nurse.

Another woman with the identical ideas went on for two years trying to persuade various hospitals in her neighborhood that she was pregnant. In the end she gave up the unequal contest and put her head in the gas over. I was grieved. She was not my patient.

Homoeopathy would have saved her life. In a case like this the non-treating homoeopathic doctor is at quite a disadvantage. He must stand by and can say nothing; the lay person can speak up and advise different treatments and change of doctors.

We have a choice of remedies for bleeding during the change. We are not restricted to only one drug, such as Ergot, as the allopaths, and when this fails, as it so often does, nothing remains but to advise an operation. And the poor woman is mutilated unnecessarily and suffers endless pain.

How much better is the way of the true healer who depends on medicines, herds of the field in some cases, in others, on metals and salts of metals which are given according to a definite law, and which very rarely let you down, and then it is generally due to not being let you find the right drug. In such a case apply to another authority whose knowledge of drugs is greater than your own, and combined efforts will often achieve the apparently impossible. Only in cases of absolute emergencies should a surgeon be sent for.

Dorothy Shepherd
Dorothy Shepherd 1885 – 1952 - British orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy. Graduated from Hering College in Chicago. She was a pupil of J.T.Kent. Author of Magic of the Minimum Dose, More Magic of the Minimum Dose, A Physician's Posy, Homeopathy in Epidemic Diseases.