Diamond
Enthusiast
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It wasn't the Victorian age that ascribed hysteria to sexual dysfunction. That goes all the way back to the Greeks. The word 'hysteria' comes from the Greek meaning uterus. They had a notion that the uterus 'wandered' from its moorings, and this could cause bizarre behavior in women. I'm not quite sure what they meant by 'wandered'.
Thomas Sydenham (d. 1689) wrote a treatise on mental illness, and in it he reported that hysteria was the commonest mental disorder, and was found as frequently in men as in women.
By the way, hysteria is not lack of good sex in women. It's a condition in which the subject, male or female, shows extreme histrionic (acting out) and emotional behavior, suggestibility, hypochondriasis (imaginary illness), and attention-getting behavior.
It is true that in the Victorian age, it was thought to be caused, in women, by sexual frustration. It's possible that women who wanted male attention would seek it from their physicians if they had not an attentive husband.
Victorian doctors really didn't know much about any disease. Most of them treated almost everything by letting blood from veins, or administering drugs that caused sweating, vomiting or diarrhea. (The idea was to get out hte poison that was causing the illness.)
Medical knowledge had been increasing for a hundred years, by the time Victoria became queen in 1837; but the practice of medicine was very slow to adapt to the new knowledge. For example, that scurvy could be cured using citrus fruit was known since 1636; but ships doctors did not recommend it until 1795. The idea of infection by organisms was known as early as 1860; but the practice of cleanliness in hospitals and birthing centres was not widespread until early in the 20th century.
So you're right, the questions put by a diagnosing doctor would have been different in Victoria's day. The doctor would ask the patient to describe her symptoms. He would take her pulse, check a urine sample for color, density, transparency, cloudiness, order and froth. He would palpate her body for signs of tumors or abscesses.
He might well have practical remedies for some complaints, e.g. mercury ointment for lice, iodine for goitre, and so forth.
Having checked as much as possible, and if he could find no symptoms that he recognized, he would begin to wonder if the patient had some hysterical illness. For this he had tests, too. If she complained of paralysis and numbness in her hand, for example, he would prod the skin with a pin. If the patient reported pain only at a point above glove line, and no pain below that, he would suspect hysterical paralysis.
Then, believeing that hysteria was caused by sexual frustration, he would ask her about her marriage, whether her husband was away a lot, and so forth, trying to discreetly come to a diagnosis.
If he diagnosed hysteria, he might prescribe or administer massage. He might treat with magnets, electricity, hypnosis, drugs such as St. John's Wort, or that she be institutionalized.
Late in the Victorian age, the woman might be treated with psychotherapy by Sigmund Freud and his followers. But none of these treatments was effective, although Freud claimed many successes.
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