Women's health

“ This is about women's health, and women and men all over America are scratching their heads and saying: Are we fighting against contraception? Are we turning the clock back 60 or 70 years? It makes no sense. ”

“ We need more women at the table in government and in business. When women are at the table, they bring a very different perspective to the same problems, a different set of solutions, a different approach. At the end of the day, the outcomes are better when women's voices are heard.
But just when I thought I couldn't be any more dumbfounded by the debate around here in terms of denying access to women's health services, there was a hearing yesterday in the House of Representatives on the topic of contraception and all the witnesses were male. ”

“ We should not need to remind our colleagues that a hundred percent of those who can have their health damaged by an unplanned pregnancy are women. A hundred percent of those who die from complications related to pregnancy are women. A hundred percent of those who give birth and plan their families are women. But 100 percent of those on that first panel, talking about the access to family planning, the ability to plan and space your children, and basic preventive health care -- there was not one single woman on that panel. ”

“ Moreover, there is reason to hope that women doctors may do even more for the health of their own sex in the way of prevention than of cure, and surely this is the very noblest province of the true physician. Already it is being proved with what eagerness women will attend lectures on physiology and hygiene when delivered to them by a woman, though perhaps not one in ten would go to the same course of lectures if given by a medical man. I look forward to the day when a competent knowledge of these subjects shall be as general among women as it now is rare ”

“ Not merely are certain of the measures to which I have alluded detrimental to the health of the woman, they are so to both parties engaged, and it is to their frequent employment, freely confessed as this is to the physician, that much of the ill health of the community, both of men and women is to be attributed. ”

“ Doubtless, the health of some persons does at this time become worse; but, on the other hand, there are those who improve, and become in every respect stronger at the cessation of the menstrual function.
54The learned Dr. Dewees, of Philadelphia, whose experience in the treatment of the diseases of women was perhaps as great as that of any other man, went so far even as to say, “The vulgar error that women at this period of life are always in danger, is replete with danger to the suffering sex;” ”

“ On the other hand, to my eye the lift attendants on the tubes, the charming conductresses of the 'buses seem healthy, though their work has been done only recently by women. I would make the influence of an occupation on woman's health—considering first and as most important her primary biological function as a potential mother—the test of its womanliness. But the health of women will never be protected while we are content to accept the valuations and suffer the defilements of this commercial age. ”

“ For is there not here, as in all spheres of life, science, arts, and professions, one region which, beyond all others, belongs to woman, by reason of natural tendencies? In medicine, it is evidently partly the preventive—that is to say, by attention to health and diet, to effect the prevention of disease, especially in women and children — and partly, par excellence, healing, curing. Women have in all ages shown a remarkable talent for the healing art, have shown an ability, by herbs and the so-called domestic medicine, to cure or assuage human suffering. ”

“ The broad ground I take on this subject is this: educate THE PEOPLE in all matters pertaining to health; let physiology and hygiene be taught at the fireside and in the schools as much as any other science. At a proper age let both sexes throughout be taught all that may be concerning pregnancy and childbirth; and, all this accomplished, let those of both sexes practice whom skill, talent, and experience dictate. Educate the PEOPLE, and they will find ixout soon enough who are the most competent, and who are not, to practice the healing art. ”

“ In such case, would the natural idea be that members of each sex should be so set apart for the benefit of their own sex respectively,—that men should fit themselves to minister to the maladies of men, and women to those of women,—or that one sex only should undertake the care of the health of all, under all circumstances? ”

“ Why is it not just as necessary that the girl, who is intrusted with the care of delicate organisms upon whose condition depends the health of the future generation, be instructed regarding the care of these organs? Instead, she is left in absolute ignorance and then blamed if she mars them.
Every woman should have some knowledge of the structure and care of her body, especially of those parts which are concerned so intimately in the welfare of the future generation. Every woman, too, should receive some instruction regarding the care of young children and the proper management of the home. ”

“ Time and time again, women have been silenced in this discussion, a discussion about our own very personal health care decisions. In fact, a recent analysis of the leading cable news channels showed that almost twice as many men as women were invited to join the conversation. ”

“ Like this the woman who has practically established the modern science of public health, in 1916 came into her title. It is probably the last difficulty and discrimination that the American woman in medicine will ever encounter. ”

“ Women are the people most likely to guard their families' health care and to make sure we're all healthier. And yet too often our health care system leaves women behind. Even when treatments are available, women don't get the necessary health care they need because they have inadequate insurance or none at all. More women than men work part-time or in jobs without insurance. And historically, research studies on everything from heart disease to strokes to AIDS have tended to focus on men, leaving women more vulnerable to many diseases. ”

“ The results of these examinations have been most illuminating as to the physical condition of women who call themselves well, to say nothing of what the medical profession in general seem to consider as standards of good health in women who will be obliged to do very hard work under most trying climatic conditions, which all Life Insurance Companies rate as extrahazardous. ”

“ It is in reality the physician's province, indeed, it is his sacred duty, to prevent disease as well as to cure it, and this, even though it must plainly lessen the business and the emoluments that would otherwise fall into his hands. Would women listen to the appeal now to be made them, an immense deal of ill-health would be prevented, and thousands of maternal as well as fœtal lives would annually be saved. ”

“ That the occurrence does takes place, and that women have, at the same time, been remarkably benefited in health; cured, as we may say, of long-standing and most obstinate chronic diseases, we know to be a fact.
But whenever retention of the menses occurs, and is not caused by pregnancy, or by the age of the individual, at which the function ceases naturally, or by a course of water-treatment, we are to suspect some derangement of the general health. ”

“ The period at which woman may be said truly to arrive at her womanhood, is certainly, in the present state of artificial life, fraught with many dangers to the future health. But, on the other hand, we have proof the most positive and indubitable—the proof of facts—that if young girls are brought up in a simple, judicious manner, and if all their habits—social, moral, physiological, and hygienic—be correct, there can be, as a general law, no danger at the coming on of puberty. ”

“ The women of the Senate, the Democratic women, are here to say enough. We are standing today and every day to fight for women and their right to make their own basic health care decisions, not their employer, not an extreme part of the Republican Party, not some men on a panel but themselves. ”

“ There is, perhaps, no period of life in which the management of the health becomes a matter of more importance than in pregnancy. A little mismanagement here is not unfrequently sufficient to cause the individual life-long suffering and disease. I have known a woman, in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy, to go to an evening party, become excited and mirthful, remain late at night, eating and drinking, as is customary on such occasions, and perhaps, worst of all for a person in such a condition, engage freely in the dance. ”

“ It is the opinion of the foremost medical men that if women at the first sign of irregularities, consult a gynecologist, it would be the means of saving thousands of lives every year, and would prepare women to enter upon the post-climatic period in health and happiness.
90 CONCLUSION In conclusion I cannot refrain from saying that women must come to recognize there is some function of womanhood other than being a child-bearing machine. Too long have they allowed themselves to become this, bowing to the yoke of motherhood from puberty to the grave. ”

“ I. It will be sufficient to name the degrees of heat, the improper aliment, the tight dresses, and the premature studies children are exposed to, in order to show the ample scope for diseases, which is added to the original defect of stamina they derive from their ancestors.
II. Civilization rises in its demands upon the health of women. Their fashions; their dress and diet; their eager pursuits and ardent enjoyment of pleasure; their indolence and undue evacuations in pregnancy; their cordials, hot regimen, and neglect, or use of art, in child-birth, are all so many inlets to disease. ”

“ I will keep my questions brief, because I wish to associate myself with the questions raised by my colleagues and their very valuable statements, especially in light of thanking you and a full appreciation for what you brought to the table today. Clearly, a woman should always have a seat at the table -- unquestionably, when the subject is women's health. ”

“ The perversion of nature's laws has brought this suffering about, and a return to right living will stop it.
Nine out of ten women are troubled more or less by weakness and diseases peculiar to their sex. It is so because they do not take proper care of themselves—because they neglect little ills and little precautions. A woman in perfectly hearty health goes through her time of trial with comparative ease. The thing to do then, is to make all pregnant women healthy—to strengthen them generally and locally. The medicine and tonic to do it with is Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescription. ”

“ The above provision would take care of the case of the woman who is ill, or who is plainly about to become ill, but it does not take care of the vast body of women who have not yet ruined their health by childbearing and who are not yet suffering from diseases complicated by pregnancy. ”

“ Many men and women suffer from injured, if not ruined, health because they did not know, especially between ten and fourteen years, the laws of personal sex-hygiene, which concern health in ways not involving sexual relationship. ”

“ I can count almost by dozens the cases which have come under my personal observation of health ruined, and life’s pleasures and usefulness alike lost with it, because young girls (and sometimes older women too) will not submit to receive from a man, however respected, the personal examination and treatment necessary for their restoration, and because no woman’s skill has been at their command. ”

“ My opportunities for noticing the decline of health in women of this generation, and forming opinions on medical subjects, have been extensive, as for over forty years I have been taxing the science and sagacity of medical men in all parts of the nation, residing in many health establishments, reading medical works, and consulting all classes of medical practitioners. ”

“ The question, however, arises—which evil is the greater,—that five hundred youths, in full health and vigour, should be made a little uncomfortable by the presence of seven women, or that seven times five hundred women, unnerved by suffering, should be subjected to the very trial they shrink from.
“That women do truly shrink from this trial, the number of wretched, broken-down sufferers from chronic disease but too clearly proves. It is only when racked by constant pain that a woman’s natural delicacy at last gives way, often only to hear said the words (how bitter they are!) ”

“ The interest of young women in sports in recent years and the practice of walking has done a great deal to make them ever so much healthier and has had not a little to do with decreasing the number and intensity of the so-called feminine ills, the special "women's diseases" of the patent medicine advertisements. ”

“ Sanitary laws and regulations have been enacted, and no doubt with good effect, but boards of health and inspectors can do but little without the intelligent co-operation of the women, on whom it depends to enforce personal and household hygiene in every family. Many other social questions might be mentioned on which women are required to know and to act. ”

“ In my book on "Health through Will Power", in the chapter on Feminine Ills and the Will, I have pointed out that in spite of the tradition which assumes that a woman's health is hurt if she has more than {78} two or three children, the women of the older time, when families were larger, were healthier on the average than they are now, in spite of all the progress that medicine and surgery have since made in relieving serious ills. ”

“ But in considering women’s work we have to take into account not only the immediate effect upon the worker, but the indirect consequences that may follow from injury to the system; and here we are brought almost at once into contact with all the grave questions connected with the subject of married women’s labour. As to the extent and gravity of the injuries to health arising from the general causes indicated, there is no question whatever. The reader who wishes to ascertain for himself full particulars as to diseases of occupation cannot do better than read the work by Dr. ”