The Vaginal Smear—basal Body Temperature Technic and Its Application to the Study of Functional Sterility in Women1

THE MENSTRUAL FLOW is the most striking and obvious of the periodically recurring events during the child bearing years of a woman's life. Its occurrence -1L is the result of changes in the uterus, detailed descriptions of which may be found in the literature cited at the end of this paper (I). The flow itself marks the end of a cycle of changes in the uterus. The uterine cycle is not the only one to reflect the fluctuations of gonad function. The vaginal mucosa undergoes comparable cyclical changes which are readily amen able to study by the vaginal smear technic. The cycle of gonadal function is also re fleeted in the metabolic rate and basal body temperatures (a), the changes in the breasts (3, 4), in weight (5, 6, 7) and in bioelectric potentials (8, 9).