Cessation of Menstruation

The time when the menstrual dis- 
charge ceases is regulated by its first appearance, commonly con- 
tinuing for the space of thirty years. Cases are, however, on 
record, where the catamenial function has regularly continued for 
a much longer period, the female, for example, begins to menstru- 
ate about her fifteenth year, but does not cease until the fiftieth, 
fifty-fifth, and in some very rare instances not until the sixtieth 
year ; but it is generally found that about the forty-fifth year indi- 
cations are experienced of the coming event.

 In some rare cases 
the discharge due to cessation of menstruation gradually diminishes, and at length totally disappears 
without producing any feelings of inconvenience, but this is not 
common ; there are generally irregularities, the discharge some- 
times being absent for six or seven weeks, and then appearing 
either more copiously than natural, or in deficient quantities. 
Again, you may, on the other hand, have the discharge not only 
profuse, but frequently repeated, and often sanguineous ; in truth* 
in almost every case where there is profuse discharge, blood is 
effused; this, you will recollect, is easily distinguished by its 
power of coagulation. This period is usually designated by 
women "the dodging time," an epithet which characterises their 
condition with tolerable exactness.

 There is often during cessation of menstruation a 
considerable degree of constitutional irritation, with an increased 
determination of blood to the head, or to some other part of the 
body. If you are consulted by a female at this period, you will 
see "the great necessity of directing attention not to the uterus alone, 
but to the state of the constitution at large. Most women look 
upon the cessation of menstruation as a critical time, which they 
call " the turn of life," and although their fears are often ground- 
less, for it is not reasonable to suppose that the cessation of this 
function (which is as natural as its commencement) should inva- 
riably and of necessity give rise to disease, yet it is an unques-

tionable fact, that if there be a morbid disposition in any part of 
the body, more especially should it exist in the womb or in the 
breast, there will be a more rapid progress at this, than at any 
previous period.

The older authors attempted to explain this  cessation of menstruation
circumstance by the supposition that the " menstruous blood" pos- 
sessed qualities of a peculiar noxious quality, and, therefore, very 
naturally considered its retention to be the cause of disease in 
some part of the body.