Weeping of a Disappointed Womb

In a chapter titled "What Every Young Girl Should Know," Lindsay R. Curtis, M.D., an OB-GYN and Mormon missionary, illustrated an egg's journey from the ovaries with a series of pen-and-ink cartoons. Modern medical textbooks still describe menstrual bleeding with the language of pathology: While men "Produce" sperm, women "Shed" eggs. An empty womb was a failure of patriotism: If an egg is lost-destroyed, dried up, passed away-so too is the nation. He marveled at the "Powers of recuperation" required to recover from "Such a completely devastating action as menstruation." The physical result of a fertilized egg, we understand, is something generated, developed, birthed.

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