The Feminine Hygiene Question

Abstract

T HE nurse is the person to whom women are most likely to go for information about feminine hygiene. Where is the nurse who hasn't had a neighbor, friend, or acquaintance ask her about some phase or other of feminine hygiene? Even in the doctor's office, a woman patient who wants to ask about the details of vaginal douching is more likely to ask the nurse than the doctor who prescribed it. Many women's magazines carry advertisements of feminine hygiene products; in these, nurses are portrayed as advising the use of a certain soothing douche powder, attesting the safety of some antiseptic solution, or offering pamphlets on how to take a douche. Considering the prestige nurses have and how often their advice is asked on feminine hygiene, it is important for them to be thoroughly familiar with the latest medical opinions and concepts on this subject. In the past, the vaginal douche was used mainly for therapeutic purposes. The practice dates back to antiquity, when women's pelvic ailments were crudely treated with irrigations and vaginal instillations of everything from diluted honey to mixtures of animal dung and herb teas. During the last century many benefits came from the invention of vulcanized rubber by Goodyear; one of them was the practical syringe-that provided an easy way of douching and widened the scope of its therapeutic application. There were hot douches for decongestion, cold douches for hemorrhage, quick pint douches and interminable gallon douches; there were specific solutions for astringent, deodorizing, antiseptic, and cleansing douches. But so far, douching was still done only at the dictate of the medical profession. Douching as a popular practice acquired impetus around the turn of the century when a Boston physician published a pamphlet on the vaginal douche as a contraceptive measure. Shortly after it was published, his pamphlet was censored, and he was ostracized by the medical profession; but the knowledge of this simple technique spread more rapidly via the grapevine, back fence, and sewing circle than had it been allowed, openly, to stand the test of time. Besides, it was easy to obtain the necessary equipment with utmost discretion; the mail order houses made douche syringes available to every one. Emancipation in fashions and manners eventually advanced feminine hygiene as scantier clothing characterized the style, broader morals were in vogue, and the private bathroom was available in most homes. Women