There was one young girl, a doctor’s daughter, who suffered continuously from pain in the abdomen, and from back-pain which increased so greatly at the time of the menses that she was in the habit of going to bed for several days, to be waited on with solicitous care by her family.  In an attempt to cure the trouble she had undergone an operation to suspend the uterus, but the pain had continued as before.  When she came to me, I explained to her that there was no physical difficulty and that her trouble was wholly nervous.  I made her play tennis every day and she had just finished a game when her period came on.  She stayed up for luncheon, went for a walk in the afternoon, ate her dinner with the family, and behaved like other people.  Her mother telephoned that evening and when I told her what her daughter had been doing, she gasped in astonishment.  She had difficulty in believing that the new order was not miracle but simply the working out of natural law.  Since that time her daughter has had no more trouble.

=The Ounce of Prevention.= If young girls had wiser counselors in their mothers and physicians, the misconception would never occur, and such an indirect outlet would not be needed; the organic sensations incident to puberty and the recurring menstrual period would have something of the significance of the annunciation to Mary, bringing wonder and a sense of well-being.

When your little daughter arrives at maturity, give her a joyous initiation into the noble order of women.  She will welcome the new function as a badge of womanhood and as a harbinger of wonderful things to come.

A girl of fifteen came under my care to be helped out of a mood of increasing depression and uneasiness.  Her glance was furtive, yet anxiously expectant.  Tears came unbidden as she sat alone or fingered the keys of the piano.  Tactful questioning elicited no response as to reasons for her unhappiness.  Opportunities for giving confidence were not accepted.  At a chance moment our talk drifted to the subject of menstruation.  “Your periods are regular and easy; and do you know what they are for?” Then I painted for her a picture of the preparations that are made throughout the whole organism, for the germ-cell that comes each month and has in it all the possibilities of a new little life.

The result of this confidential talk may seem fanciful to any one but an eye-witness.  We had only a week’s association, but the depression ceased, the furtive look and deprecatory manner were replaced by a joyous buoyancy.  In a few weeks the thin neck and awkward body rounded out into the symmetry which usually precedes the establishment of puberty, but which was delayed in this case until the unconscious conflict resolved itself.