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Case Studies
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and her three children attended a local high school. She and her
husband enjoyed their neighborhood and local church. Her yard was
filled with beautiful flowers inside its white picket fence, and she
loved her family’s friendly small dog. Life seemed good . . . except
lately Maryann had noticed she had more bad days than good ones.
While out to lunch with a friend from work, she commented that
she only had about one week a month when she felt really good. Her
friend laughed in agreement—but Maryann knew her friend did not
have as much trouble with PMS symptoms as she did.
Because of a particularly stressful few months at work and the
upcoming graduation of her daughter, Maryann felt even more
tense. She found herself unable to sleep night after night. When she
did sleep, about once a month she would wake up with a scream
that startled the whole family. She dreamed again and again that
someone entered her bedroom and stood over her bed.
Women in the early 1880s:
• had seven or eight children.
• breast-fed each one for twelve to eighteen months as a way
to prevent another pregnancy as long as possible (a form
of birth control that is not always effective).
• experienced menopause near the age of forty.
• usually lived no longer than their late forties (often because
their bodies were worn out from childbearing).
Until recently, our culture thought that women’s primary job
was to produce and raise children. Women’s ailments were not
taken seriously. With the advent of the women’s movement in
the twentieth century, however, all that began to change. For
the first time, scientists began to research the female body. As a
result, our culture—and women themselves—have new respect
and understanding for the monthly cycle all women experience.