Female Hysteria

[Fyah]

Has anyone ever heard of this?

This woman at my job, said that her mother (from Italy) was once diagnosed with this illness so I looked it up.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">A popular diagnosis in Western nations, during the Victorian era, for women who exhibited a wide array of symptoms including faintness, nervousness, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in abdomen, muscle spasm, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and a &quot;tendency to cause trouble&quot;.

Patients diagnosed with female hysteria would sometimes undergo &quot;pelvic massage&quot; — manual stimulation of the woman's genitals by the doctor to &quot;hysterical paroxysm&quot;, which is now recognized as orgasm.</div></div>

[Suesumba]

Re: Female Hysteria

yeh. back then when women got the &quot;vapours&quot; the friendly family physician would give them some hand release

<span style="font-style: italic">G-rated board and all that</span>

[Shine_Eye_Girl]

Re: Female Hysteria

oh....yu meen olefootitis

[diabolical_Tanya]

Re: Female Hysteria

When I first heard of this I wondered if it had something to do with the corsets that they wear/wore back then....

I believe the very first vibrator was invented as a cure for this illness also

[H_O]

Re: Female Hysteria

you ever see some a dem ole generation italian woman?

it nawt water retention-its pasta and carbs retention

[Shine_Eye_Girl]

Re: Female Hysteria

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Error403_0</div><div class="ubbcode-body">you ever see some a dem ole generation italian woman?

it nawt water retention-its pasta and carbs retention </div></div>


yes.....

[seemiyah]

Re: Female Hysteria

I bet they went to the doctor every week for &quot;treatment&quot;

[Fyah]

Re: Female Hysteria

LOL @ all of you.

Am I the only one who's never heard of this? Is there another or more modern term used today to describe this illness?

[Lacy]

Re: Female Hysteria

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: seemiyah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I bet they went to the doctor every week for &quot;treatment&quot; </div></div>

Until it became an addiction....

[Suesumba]

Re: Female Hysteria

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Runnah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">LOL @ all of you.

Is there another or more modern term used today to describe this illness? </div></div>

yeh. &quot;issues&quot; as in &quot;she's got issues&quot;

you're welcome

[Fyah]

Re: Female Hysteria

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SueSumba</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Runnah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">LOL @ all of you.

Is there another or more modern term used today to describe this illness? </div></div>

yeh. &quot;issues&quot; as in &quot;she's got issues&quot;

you're welcome </div></div>

Ohhhh.

Thanks! LOL

[RichD]

Re: Female Hysteria

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Runnah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Has anyone ever heard of this?

This woman at my job, said that her mother (from Italy) was once diagnosed with this illness so I looked it up.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">A popular diagnosis in Western nations, during the Victorian era, for women who exhibited a wide array of symptoms including faintness, nervousness, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in abdomen, muscle spasm, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and a &quot;tendency to cause trouble&quot;.

Patients diagnosed with female hysteria would sometimes undergo &quot;pelvic massage&quot; — manual stimulation of the woman's genitals by the doctor to &quot;hysterical paroxysm&quot;, which is now recognized as orgasm.</div></div>




</div></div>that sound like what dem call in di southern caribbean islands &quot;lackadoo&quot;

[diabolical_Tanya]

Re: Female Hysteria

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/184106

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Does anyone in this modern day and age still believe in 'female hysteria'?

No, that was an outdated sexist description of anything a male doctor could not understand in his female patients. Women can be more openly emotional than men, but, if they are very distressed, there is clearly something wrong, and the source should be looked for, not band-aided over. In the 60s, my mum inlaw was diagnosed with hysteria: at home, she was a WW2 refugee, living with four children, plus husband and mother in a two bedroomed flat...her mother had dementia and diabetes...her husband's wage was simply not enough for them to move...but the doctor took none of this into account, just prescibed valium. She weaned herself off it, because she realised what it was doing to her...it was a horrible time in her life. </div></div>


I did not realize that as recently as the 60's this was stil going on

[diabolical_Tanya]

Re: Female Hysteria

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Click to reveal.. <input type="button" class="form-button" value="Show me!" onclick="toggle_spoiler(this, 'Yikes, my eyes!', 'Show me!')" /></div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div style="display: none;"> </div></div></div>

The exact cause of hysteria is not clearly defined, except that is was a ‘womb disease.’ According to the Victorians, it had either to do with pent-up fluids in the female body, stress of modern-day life, or the ‘wanderings of the womb.’ It was definately an upper-class disease, an American physician expressed pleasure that the country was ‘catching up’ to Europe in the prevalence of hysteria.

Luckily, there was a temporary solution for hysteria (hysteria was a chronic disease so it could never be fully cured.) The woman suffering from hysteria would go to the doctor for a ‘pelvic massage to the point of hysterical paroxysm.’ The doctors thought this to be a very tedious task indeed, and due to this, the first vibrators were invented: around 1870 the first ones were in use by physicians.

There is a Dutch book which deals with the issue, but I don’t think it has ever been translated. In Frederik van Eeden’s ‘Van de Koele Meren des Doods,’ a young wife gets ill and, after examining her, the physician encourages her husband to engage in the marrital duties more often. This book was written in 1900, and I think may be one of the earliest to show how the lack of physical affections in the Victorian marriage might affect a women’s mood.

[Fyah]

Re: Female Hysteria

That is unreal.