"Hystera is the ancient Greek word for “womb,” and also birthed words such as “uterus” and “hysteria.” This is not actually a coincidence. For centuries, being hysterical was also called the “traveling womb disease.” As such, men could not suffer from “hysteria.” However, this is one of the rare times in which a totally sexist perception had a favorable result for the victims of the sexist attitude. In the nineteenth century, the cure for these female crazies was widely considered to be a screaming orgasm. As such, doctors’ offices actually had mechanical vibrators and water pulse treatment, intended to produced the desired orgasm. We can imagine that some patients needed the vibrator treatment four or five times a week, both for actual fits or simple preventative medicine."
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