EVALUATION OF THE PROSTIGMINE TEST FOR EARLY PREGNANCY

To the Editor:— Soskin Wachtel and Hechter reported inThe Journal(May 25, p. 2090) on the value of prostigmine in inducing menstruation in women who had missed their regular menstrual cycle. These authors stress the role that hyperemia may play in menstruation and attempt to correlate the parasympathetic nervous system with it. They write: This relationship of the nervous system to uterine hyperemia might readily account for the well known influence of mental, emotional and physical strain on the menstrual history of women. It thus appeared possible that cases of delayed menstruation, now generally ascribed to temporary endocrine dysfunctions, might in fact occur despite normal hormone secretion and be due to abnormally decreased vascular responsiveness. It therefore seemed worth while to attempt to treat such cases by pharmacologic [prostigmine] rather than by endocrine means. They showed that twenty-five women who had missed a menstrual period for from three to