Allergy Due to Menotoxin of Pregnancy

Abstract

One hesitates to report a case of allergy due to human emanation, not only because the condition is so rare and to date experimentally unattainable, but because of the fact, recently reemphasized by Vaughan and Fowlkes,1 that allergy due to cohabitation is usually traceable to a substance about the offending person other than human emanation. Encouraged by Cooper's 2 recent report of allergy to human semen, however, we wish to report here the occurrence of bronchial asthma in a child due to the menotoxin of the mother during her pregnancy and puerperium.Although the existence of menstrual toxin has been suspected and mentioned since Biblical times, the superstition was first put to scientific test by Dr. B\l=e'\laSchick,3 who in 1920 showed that freshly cut flowers held in the hand of a menstruating woman for from ten to thirty minutes on the first to the third day of her period would wither within a few hours.Macht and Lubin,4 two years later, in a more exhaustive study of menotoxin, showed that a substance was present in the menstrual blood, as well as in the blood serum and in practically all the body secretions of menstruating women, which was toxic to plants and animals. From their studies they concluded that menotoxin is related chemically not to endocrine gland extracts but rather to bile salts and oxycholesterol. It is heat resistant, occurs in appreciable concentration in periodic cycles and pharmacologically has a pressor (vasoconstrictor) effect.