AMENORRHCEA. — (Lat.). From d, priv.; ti; 1), a mouth; and 1)Eiv, to flow.
Definition.—Absence of the menstrual flow in women of a suitable age who are not pregnant. Suppression of menses, the menstruation having ceased through some local or remote disorder, is also termed amenorrhoea.
Varieties.—Amenorrhcea may be com plete, when the menstruations have com pletely- ceased; co-mparative, when it ap pears occasionally; primary, when the menstruation has not presented itself at the age of puberty nor subsequently; secondary, transitory or accidental, or when, having already appeared, the men struation ceases.
Symptoms.—No other symptom than absence of the menstruation may be pres ent, or the monthly flow may be absent and the general attendant phenomena usually preceding menstruation occur. Frequently the patient complains of headache, heat-flashes, fever, nausea and I This trilogy of symptoms did not always appear contemporaneously in any of the patients who are affected. In all of them when first seen the local asphyxia and the irregularity of menstruation were marked; in two of the patients pulmonary tuberculosis was also co existent with the other clinical features mentioned, while in two other patients it developed at a subsequent period.
J. W. Byers (Lancet, Aug. 26, '99).
Etiology.—In cases of primary men struation imperfect or insufficient de velopment is the most usual cause. In cold countries, where growth of the sys tem at large is more gradual, the men struation appears later than in the warmer countries, where development is rapid, but where, also, women enter the stages of decrepitude earlier. Anatom ical imperfections and anomalies, the absence of any of the genital organs, or a rudimentary or infantile uterus may thus account for the total absence of menstruation. Imperforate hymen is a frequent, though easily recognized, cause.
On general principles, the causes of amenorrhoea may be divided into four classes:—