Illustration demonstrating how to use a vibrator to externally massage the uterus. C. H. Liedbeck, 1891. Vibrators were prescribed to alleviate symptoms of hysteria. By the mid to late 19th century, hysteria (or sometimes female hysteria) came to refer to what is today generally considered to be sexual dysfunction. Typical treatment was massage of the patient's genitalia by the physician and, later, by vibrators or water sprays to cause orgasm.