Is it Vicarious Menstruation?
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1999 May / Jun VOL VIII NO 3.
Dr S Praveen Kumar
'Sepia

Three years ago a lady aged 24 years anxiously walked into the consulting chamber and complained of bleeding from the nose. Probably informed by another Homoeopath, she asked a question, "Is it vicarious menstruation?" For a moment it looked true as, funnily enough, the epistaxis started on the expected date of menstruation.

On a thorough interrogation, the whole scenario was unveiled. She had frequent throat infections since two years. She used to get pain, with slightly rough sensation, commonly by exposure to dust and ice creams; accompanied by sneezing in the morning, burning of eyes and watery coryza. She was taking allopathic treatment irregularly. When she had epistaxis for the first time she consulted an allopath with no avail. Then approached a Homoeopath who coined it as vicarious menstruation and put her on Bry. The epistaxis did not stop nor did the menses appear, but instead she developed nausea and vomiting, more in the morning, even at the smell of cooking food. There was pain in the breasts, which used to be more during menses. Though basically a good eater, she was afraid to eat on account of vomiting and she hence developed weakness. There was increased sweating especially on thighs. She was constipated in general but more so during the said period. She used to have leucorrhoea in between the menses.

Past History

1. Chicken pox Early childhood
2. Typhoid 9th year
3. Jaundice 10th year
4. Pustular eruptions on fingers and thighs in summer - 4 years.

Personal History
Bowels: Constipated
Appetite: Normal
Thirst: Normal
Urine: Normal
Sweating: Thighs
No special Cravings or Aversions for food
LMP 22-2-96

Family History
Fa- Hypertension.

Life Space
She is the third daughter-in-law of a Marwari joint family having a jewellery business. Married in 1995. Husband is affectionate. Other family members are also affectionate. But the in-laws are strict about many matters. Being the only daughter of a rich family she is not used to being contradicted. She has, at the corner of her mind, an idea of setting up a separate family, but afraid of its consequences and the responsibilities.

On examination she was mildly anemic and all other vital statistics were normal.

Out of a gut feel, I asked the lady to go for a pregnancy test and it came positive. This obviously disproves the theory of vicarious menstruation. So, to prescribe a correct remedy the following rubrics were taken for repertorisation.

After the repertorisation Sepia emerged on top followed by Lyco and Bryonia. But Sepia was not indicated for the characteristic symptom ie Epistaxis, amenorrhoea with, for which drugs like Bry, Cact, Phos and Puls were indicated. But after going through the Clarke's dictionary and verifying with Herring's Guiding Symptoms it was decided to give Sepia in 200 potency [1 dose] this paved way for the complete improvement. Later unfortunately she had to undergo MTP as the scan report showed defective foetal development. She went into depression.

She surfaced again after one year with the same complaint of Epistaxis during pregnancy. This time Sepia 200 was given with more authority, as it is the only drug mentioned for this rubric in second grade in Robin Murphy's Repertory. She was closely monitored throughout the pregnancy, and later delivered a healthy male child. Her other complaints pertaining to respiratory and skin allergy were also very much relieved.