Lydia Pinkham brought a measure of respectability to over-the-counter menstrual remedies in the 1920s with a tonic designed to help sufferers of monthly ills. Although the tonic was often a staple of medicine chests, like iodine and aspirin, there is some doubt as to whether it was of any real medicinal value, other than providing a psychological boost. This formula preceded the more effective up-to-date menstrual cramp remedies, like ibuprofen.
Before such modem prostaglandin inhibitors were developed, it was not unusual to hear of women who became addicted to laudanum—a tincture of opium—to relieve their pain. Others tried nonmedical treatments like hot sweat baths with massage, hoping to perspire out the disease. The rundown, or “salt glow,” following the bath was concentrated in the abdominal area to stimulate blood Bow to the area. “Galvanism,” a less fearsome cousin of shock treatment, applied electrical current to the area to reduce pain. Along with the staple family recipes for healing that were handed down generation to generation, liniments, douches, decoctions, poultices, and brews were available from doctors, mail-order catalogs, pharmacies, and quacks.
Modern pharmacology can manufacture drugs from synthetics, plants, minerals, whatever, but turn-of-the-century cures relied on plants. Although few women nowadays partake of hemlock tea (made from the leaves and inner bark) to “tone the uterus,” there is a renewed and growing interest among women with endometriosis in drug-free therapies that are as young as TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, a form of biofeedback and stress control) and as old as acupuncture. Some of these therapies require the ministrations of experts on an individual basis; others, like dietary changes and stress management, can be, in general, incorporated into the daily lives of most sufferers of the disease.
Modern pharmacology can manufacture drugs from synthetics, plants, minerals, whatever, but turn-of-the-century cures relied on plants. Although few women nowadays partake of hemlock tea (made from the leaves and inner bark) to “tone the uterus,” there is a renewed and growing interest among women with endometriosis in drug-free therapies that are as young as TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, a form of biofeedback and stress control) and as old as acupuncture. Some of these therapies require the ministrations of experts on an individual basis; others, like dietary changes and stress management, can be, in general, incorporated into the daily lives of most sufferers of the disease.
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