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CLEANLINESS
SKIN CARE
COSMETICS
ORAL CARE & DENTISTRY
HAIR CARE
HAIRSTYLES
BODY HAIR
FEMININE HYGIENE
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Medieval
Feminine Hygiene
The menstrual cycle and what to do about it
MENSTRUATION
- THE WANDERING WOMB - FEMININE
HYGIENE PRODUCTS - CONTRACEPTIVES
& ABORTIVES
PLEASE NOTE:
THIS PAGE CONTAINS ADULT THEMES!
Menstruation
Some called menstruation a sickness although it was generally agreed that
it was a punishment from God upon womankind to pay for Eve's original sin
in the Garden of Paradise and was therefore deserved and not in any way
in need of medical relief for cramps or excessive flow. It was also seen
as extremely significant that holy women were often found to not
menstruate, thus substantiating the belief of regular women being sinners
who deserved their lot.
In reality, the extremely frugal diets of very pious women was probably
the underlying cause for the lack of menses. With a lack of proper nourishment,
the body could not longer sustain a pregnancy or reproduce and the menses
stopped. If a woman left the harsh religious life and returned to the secular
world and diet, her menses would return. Again, this was seen as an undisputed
sign from God of the holiness of nuns and the worldliness of other women
generally. Another possible reason for the lack of menses in holy women
is that many wealthy women only turned to a life of religious contemplation
very late in life and were possibly post-menopausal.
Those who were more medically minded believed that the menses blood-letting
started at the head and traveled throughout the body collecting poisonous
wastes and humors and giving rise to the popular belief that sex with a
menstruating woman would kill or mutilate the semen and produce horribly
deformed offspring or children with red hair or leprosy. This, of course,
was usually seen as a sign of God's displeasure. Just the gaze of an old
woman who still had her periods was thought to be poisonous- the vapours
being emitted from her eyes.
It was also believed by some that the touch of a menstruating woman would
cause a plant to die- a belief which was probably not shared by landowners
who required women to work alongside men in the garden and would not have
wished to lose days of productivity each month. Pliny the Elder, in the
first century, declared that the menstrual fluid was most potent-
Contact with it turns new wine sour,
crops touched by it become barren, grafts die, seeds in gardens dry
up, the fruit of the trees fall off, the bright surface of mirrors in
which it is merely reflected is dimmed, the edge of steel and the gleam
of ivory are dulled, hives of bees die, even bronze and iron are at
once seized by rust, and a horrible smell fills the air; to taste it
drives dogs mad and infects their bites with incurable poison.
Pliny reported that the poisonous properties
of menstruating women could be put to good use. If menstruating women
go round the cornfield naked, it would act as a powerful insecticide,
he wrote. Caterpillars, worms, beetles and other vermin were expected
to be eliminated. During plagues of insects, Pliny had read, menstruating
women had been instructed to walk around the fields with their clothes
pulled up above their buttocks. He does not note whether this proved a
successful remedy or not.
As with our modern society, premenstrual tension was not undiagnosed.
Known as melancholia, very little effort was spent in seeking causes or
cures as it was once again seen as God's natural design for the female
and therefore not necessary of change.  In
spite of this, many herbal remedies were widely known and used.  The
astringent leaves of Lady's Mantle alchemilla vulgaris, at left,
were helpful with profuse menstruation. Thyme thymus species was
used for 'women's complaints' and as an ointment for skin troubles. Fresh
leaves of Woodruff asperula odorata (shown at right) made into
tea and drunk was recommended for nausea.
Aldobrandino of Siena produced a work Regime du Corps which included
advice on feminine hygiene, skincare and gynaecology.
According to the 14th century manuscript, Tacuinum Sanitatis, fennel was
particularly bad for menstruation. It also advises that acorns would prevent
menstruation from occurring, but does not indicate how the acorns should
be eaten. It goes on to say that this could be countered by having the
acorns roasted with sugar.
The
theory of the wandering womb
Medical practitioners during the middle ages failed to agree on a rather
unusual point connected to feminine complaints- whether the womb was stationary
or whether it 'wandered' around inside the body causing a variety of other
ailments- including vomiting if it stopped at the heart, and loss of voice
and an ashed complexion if it stopped at the liver. The stress of a wandering
womb was usually believed to be the cause of hysteria. Indeed the word
hysterical translates loosely as 'madness of the womb'. Even physicians
who did not adhere to the theory of the wandering womb, agreed that hysteria
was a solely female complaint and was probably caused by a lack of intercourse
when uterine secretions built up and were not released causing the entire
body to be poisoned.
Feminine
hygiene products
There is very little
information about what was used for a woman's monthly period written.
The following are my theories ONLY and entirely not proven in any way.
Trotula mentions wads of cotton being used for the cleansing of the inner
canals of the woman's vulva prior to sexual intercourse with her husband,
but it is unlikely that a similar cotton wadding may have been used for
a kind of medieval tampon as the belief in letting the menses flow and
drain from the body prevailed. To plug up the flow of menstrual blood
would be seen as both dangerous and injurious to the woman. Obviously,
some device was necessary, so this leaves the alternate as a stuffed sanitary
pad or napkin of some kind as a logical conclusion.
A pad of linen fabric seems possible, but when filled with linen wadding
would make a pad which would be unlikely to launder well for reuse. The
filling would probably not wash well and dry badly in the winters. Since
the lower classes also menstruate, it seems that when considering a reusable,
washable pad, this was not the answer. It seems that due to wools water-dispelling
qualities, it is also an unlikely stuffing for a sanitary pad.
 In
the middle ages, sphagnum moss sphagnum cymbifolium, shown at right,
was used for toilet paper and was also believed by surgeons to have antiseptic
properties. It was also known by the name Blood Moss and was used during
the crusades by physicians to stem blood flow in battle wounds and was
reknown for its sponge-like absorbent qualities and ability to be rinsed
out and reused. A
Gaelic Chronicle of 1014 relates that the wounded in the battle of Clontarf
'stuffed their wounds with moss,' and the Highlanders after Flodden
tended to their bleeding wounds by filling them with bog moss.
It occurs
that this might make an exceptionally good filling for a sanitary pad-
absorbent, reusable, washable, almost instantly driable and freely available
to both wealthy and the lower classes alike in almost all geographic locations.
The benefit of antiseptic properties from a woman's poisonous menstrual
blood would possibly be seen as an added bonus.
Although there is no concrete proof, it is entirely possible that medieval
women used moss-stuffed napkins as sanitary pads. We know that moss is
permeated with minute tubes and spaces with a system of tubes, having
the effect of a very fine sponge. The cells easily and quickly absorb
liquid and retain it. Water can be squeezed out and the moss does not
collapse and is ready for reuse. A pad of sphagnum moss would absorb the
blood in lateral directions well as above and retain it until fully saturated.
In a forum discussion in January, 2006, Robin Netherton discusses an interesting
find from a burial at Herjofsnes. It concerns a device which she believes
to be a pad, possibly used for incontinence. It is made of sealskin, wool
and has traces of moss possibly from the filling. Her conclusions are:
When the body was laid in the grave
there must have been lying on the back of os coccygis ... a strip of
sealskin to which was fastened a redbrown woollen cord to keep the sealskin
in place, while in front on mons pubis it was also kept in place by
a couple of woollen cords which probably passed up to a cord or belt
about the hip-region, thus representing a kind of bandage passing from
mons pubis between femora down before pudenda and anus and up between
nates in the sacral region.
Although this burial is far removed geographically
from medieval England and France, it shows that the possible use of a
pad for both incontinence and other bodily fluids was known. Indeed, before
the advent of the self-adhesive sanitary pad, napkins were similarly suspended,
although from modern elasticised suspenders.
Contraceptives
and Abortives
Since childbirth was so perilous, many women were desirous of contraception
which was roundly condemned by the church. St Augustine declared that
any woman, whether she was married or otherwise, became a whore in the
eyes of God if she used contraceptives as the only reason for sexual intercourse
was procreation. Abortion was also frowned upon as it was stated in the
dictum that a fetus had a soul of its own after 40 days.
Luckily, breastfeeding and poor nutrition provided a certain amount of
contraceptive measure for the peasant woman. Women in higher society were
more likely to have wet nurses and thereby run the risk of pregnancy sooner
than her poorer counterpart.
 One
contraceptive measure recorded by medieval German women is noted as being
beeswax and rags to form a physical block for contraception. Other popular
contraceptive herbal compounds used rosemary and balsam with or without
palsley (parsley?). Douching and eating lead was also believed to alleviate
potential pregnancy while Albertus Magnus prescribed consuming myrrh and
coriander to abort a fetus.
A plaster made of hemlock, pictured at right, applied to the testicles
of the husband prior to the sexual act was also recommended as a contraceptive.
Surprisingly, this helpful advice comes from a treatise written by the
future catholic Pope John XXI in The Treasure of the Poor.
Copyright
© Rosalie Gilbert
All text & photographs within this site are the property of Rosalie
Gilbert unless stated.
Artifact images remain the property of the owner.
Images and text may not be copied and used without permission.
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