Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/215

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CHAPTER SEVEN

For cases with lacerated or proliferated cervix or adjacent growths.

In some cases the cervix is so deeply cleft that an ordinary woman might fit a cervical cap on to one half of the cervical neck and leave the other uncovered, and the cap would then be insecure and entirely unreliable. In cases where the cervix is proliferated or there are other extraneous growths adjacent to it, the small occlusive cap cannot be fitted. If a woman who suffers from cervical or adjacent growths tries to use the cap she may be misled into thinking the cap caused the growth! Hence, not only does the "cap method" get blamed for failing as a contraceptive, but it is said to "cause bleeding" or growths or whatever is wrong.

Illustrative Case.

A woman wrote to me that the cap had caused cancer. Immediate inquiries elicitated from her the fact that bleeding ensued the day after she used a cap for the first time, and that cancer was at once diagnosed.

It is perhaps hardly necessary to point out that a soft rubber cap cannot cause a cancerous growth in eight hours! Nevertheless, this case, and a possible few scattered cases like it, are, I believe, the source of

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