In addition to its influence on the genital organs themselves, the sexual life of woman during the period of the menacme manifests its powers for evil especially in relation to the digestive functions, and to the functions of the heart and the nervous system.
When we compare the various consequences which may be induced in the principal organic systems as a result of functional disturbances and organic diseases of the female genital organs, we find that in respect of the frequency of their occurrence the diseases of the nervous system occupy the first rank; next in frequency come the disorders of the digestive organs that arise in sympathetic association with diseases of the female reproductive organs; whilst the third rank in respect of frequency and importance is occupied by the cardiac disorders that arise in connection with changes in the female organs of generation, and take the form either of disturbances of the heart’s functions or structural changes in the heart’s muscle.
Although it has long been a familiar observation that pregnant women and women suffering from diseases of the reproductive organs suffered from various dyspeptic troubles, I was myself the first (in the _Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift_, 1883) to bring together, and to describe under the name of _dyspepsia uterina_, a peculiar group of dyspeptic conditions which are dependent upon diseases of the female reproductive organs. I dismissed from consideration organic diseases of the stomach and intestine dependent upon anatomical changes in these organs, even though these also might owe a similar etiology, and described only the more frequent dyspepsias occurring without organic change in the digestive apparatus, the origin of which is to be explained by the fact that certain structural changes and displacements of the uterus (to be discussed later) arouse centripetal impulses, and that these exercise a reflex influence on digestive activity.
This influence, according to my observations, affects the secretory and muscular apparatus and also the nervous elements of the digestive tract, and I regard the following conditions as characteristic of uterine dyspepsia, though they do not necessarily all occur simultaneously: changes in the gastric secretion, excitement of the vomiting centre, an inhibitory influence on intestinal peristalsis, and hyperæsthesia of the stomach.