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   Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Dec-2024 21:04:47 JST Vagina Museum

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   Next year, we're opening an exhibition all about menopause. We're currently fundraising to support this exhibition and associated programme to dive deeply into menopause in history, culture and science. Please give what you can to support this work https://www.gofundme.com/f/r9tszw

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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Dec-2024 21:04:48 JST Vagina Museum

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     Now, we suspect that the perimenopausal among you would like nothing better than for a doctor to prescribe you some weed and a holiday, but we feel obliged to say that menopause is NOT a form of insanity. And also that hysteria was, in general, plain old medical misogyny.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) and Fã do Vegeta :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Dec-2024 21:04:49 JST Vagina Museum

     In the Victorian era, there was a disease: climacteric insanity. It was a form of hysteria which specifically *only* affected women aged 40-60. And these were its symptoms, which might sound familiar to a lot of you around that age...

     From F. Skrae, 1884.

     Fã do Vegeta :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Dec-2024 21:04:49 JST Vagina Museum

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     Now, in great news for any 48 year old woman undergoing mood swings in the 19th century, climacteric insanity was considered eminently curable, and in even better news the cure usually wasn't being sent to the asylum, unless you were particularly rage-y.

     The cure for climacteric insanity had several main strands. First of all, the patient was advised to be away from friends and family as they might prove to trigger anger or sadness. Usually this would be a trip away rather than the asylum.

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     Vagina Museum (vagina_museum@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Dec-2024 21:04:49 JST Vagina Museum

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     Enriching entertainment was a crucial part of the cure for climacteric insanity, as well as eating a good diet. Oh, and a ton of drugs, too. Morphine and cannabis were recommended to relieve insomnia and calm "nervous irritation".

     The final part of the cure was regular enemas or laxatives, because Dr Skrae was convinced that it was the climacteric insanity which caused constipation, and not the dosing with morphine.

     Fã do Vegeta :Ryyca: repeated this.
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     isol (isol@mastodon.au)'s status on Thursday, 23-Jan-2025 00:05:11 JST isol

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     @vagina_museum

     Oh wait, and males too!

     (also by the same F. Skrae 🤔)

     https://archive.org/details/b21479161