Not only is the strength of the constitution lowered by the excessive expenditure of force and matter requisite for the perpetuation of the species, but this lowered standard of vitality is transmitted to children.  There can be but little doubt that this is one of the reasons why so many healthy parents beget sickly children, who die early.  They have exhausted themselves of the material from which a new life is created, and so it is not properly started at the beginning and never reaches its highest development.  To the truth of this statement attests the mental imbecility, the pallid and attenuated forms, of the children who are the earlier products of marriage.  The effect of excessive coitus in women is seen by the confirmed ill health of so many women after marriage and repeated child-bearing.  A large number of these cases are dependent upon alteration and diseases of the genitalia; but a considerable number are unconnected with local disease, and in many other cases the health is never regained after all local phenomena have disappeared.

Sexual excitement in the woman causes certain congestion of the genital organs; and at the time of the orgasm there is a reflex movement which corresponds to erection, and which consists of a peristaltic movement of the tubes and uterus; to the uterus also is ascribed an act of suction by which the spermatozoa are drawn up into its interior.  Even when pregnancy does not follow, the too frequent excitation and activity of the uterus in weak constitutions causes illness, first of the genital organs and then of the nervous system.

Local diseases caused in women by excessive coitus are:  vaginal catarrh, acute catarrh of the vulva, acute inflammation of the lining membrane of the uterus as well as of the uterus itself, inflammation of the ovaries, and even peritonitis.  It is also known to be an important factor in the origin of blood-tumors and of cancer of the uterus.  Especially is coitus at a time of great physical fatigue liable to be provocative of uterine inflammations.  Aside from ethical considerations, coitus during the menstrual period may be the cause of rupture of the impaired blood-vessels, thus causing blood-tumors.  Excessive coitus is a well-known cause of chronic inflammation of the uterus; that is, a habitual congestion of the uterus is induced by excessive sexual intercourse.  This has been frequently mentioned by authors as leading to enlargement of the uterus in the non-pregnant condition; and it is a still more potent factor in the recently impregnated organ, whose tissues are succulent and the vessels enlarged, a condition inviting congestion and enhancing the susceptibility to engorgement.

The general manifestations of impaired health in women due to excessive coitus are:  chronic anemia, with malnutrition; impaired and altered functions in all the organs, especially those of the nervous system.  Menorrhagia is apt to be induced by overstimulation of the ovaries, together with exhaustion and sexual apathy.