s not depend upon the menopause,
but upon their general condition, if they will learn that many women
at fifty and sixty are much more attractive than some women at half
that age, they will not take the onset of the menopause so tragically
and they will thereby avoid the greater part of their mental and
emotional suffering.

The actual atrophy of the ovaries, uterus, external genitals and the
breasts can, of course, not be prevented, but that atrophy is a slow
and gradual process, and is not in itself the cause of the various
distressing symptoms that we have enumerated.

The treatment of the menopause, if the symptoms are at all
disagreeable, or distressing, should be in the hands of a competent
physician. A little wholesome advice may be more efficient than
gallons of medicine and bushels of pills. In general the woman should
try to lead as calm and peaceful a life as possible. Warm baths daily
are beneficial, constipation should be guarded against, hot vaginal
douches are often efficient against the disagreeable flushes, and
last, but not least, the husband should during this critical period be
doubly kind and doubly considerate of his wife. It is during the years
between forty-five and fifty-five that the wife is most in need of her
husband's sympathy and support.

=Increased Libido During Menopause.= There is one rather delicate
symptom which I must not pass unmentioned. Some women during the years
while the menopause is being established, and for some years after the
menopause, experience a greatly heightened sexual desire. In some
cases this increased libido is normal, that is, no other pathologic
symptoms or local conditions can be discovered. In some cases the
increased libido is distinctly due to local congestion, congestion of
the ovaries, the uterus, etc. In some cases, I can distinctly testify,
it is psychic or autosuggestive. Because the woman thinks, and
believes that other people think, that she is soon going to lose all
her sexuality, she unconsciously works herself up into a sexual
passion which sometimes may be of long duration and may even lead to
disastrous results.

What to do in such cases? Where the woman's libido is normal or near
normal, then naturally it should be normally gratified. But if the
libido seems to be abnormally strong and the demands for sexual
gratification are too frequent, then the woman should be treated and
sexual gratification should not be indulged in, because in such