Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/210

ever. The assumption properly is that the bride is still virgo intacta; and therefore any preventive measure to be used by the woman should be in the ordinary way impossible. It is true that nowadays an increasing number of girls have, through athletic activity and other natural causes, had the hymen already ruptured; but a hymen partially, or even completely ruptured in this accidental way does not involve the internal stretching which is caused by successive acts of coitus, so that the bride is not physically in a condition to wear the occlusive cap, and though she might be able to utilize the quinine suppository, it is very liable to cause soreness and irritation in the first few days owing to the laceration and tenderness normal at the bridal period. Without doubt for the first two or three weeks of marriage responsibility for the contraceptive measures taken should properly devolve on the man.

When asked, as I frequently am, what course should be pursued by a young couple with good reasons to take contraceptive measures on the bridal night I generally recommend that for the first few weeks of marriage the man should use the ordinary condom or sheath (see p. 125). This has a double advantage because it not infrequently