Menstruation

The Nature of Menses

Galen (Humoral Doctrine) and Hippocrates had fundamental gynecological principles in common that would significantly influence medieval gynecology: primarily, the role of menstruation.  Menstruation was a requisite purging of the blood (humor) that kept uterus-owners in good health.  Women were cold and men were hot.  Women, therefore, must experience their monthly purging in order to maintain balance in the humors, unless, of course, they were pregnant or lactating in which the “excess” would be put to good use producing a fetus or milk. On the contrary, men being hotter, they metabolized their nutrients and expelled their waste more efficiently than women (i.e. Men are better at pooping so they do not need to menstruate).  

Menses were known to the medieval physician as having a double nature: one part pure and one part impure.  “The pure menses is that proper seed of the woman, which is transformed into the substance of the fetus. The impure menses, however, is a certain superfluity and impurity caused by nondigestion of food.”  The purging of nondigested food via menstruation is that of the fourth digestion.  The first digestion is in the mouth, and takes place via chewing. The second digestion takes place in the stomach, and produces superfluity of feces.  The third digestion takes place in the liver.  The fourth digestion, that of menstruation, takes place in the “members” and sperm or semen is the superfluity of the fourth digestion. The reason women have menstrual periods and men do not, despite both having the same four digestions, is because, “the third digestion takes place in the liver, where the greatest heat burns in men and for this reason no impurity is left over. However, in women the heat is weak, and so superfluity remains.”

On The Uterus

Another holdover from Galenic and Hippocratic gynecology that influenced women’s medicine in the middle ages is the concept of the wandering womb.  Within this medical theory, the uterus may roam about the body, which of course was caused by retention of the menses, among other causes including a lack of heteronormative sexual activity, fatigue, dryness of the womb, etc.  In plain speak, the uterus would often move upward towards the liver (because the liver is wet and the uterus is dry), hitting against this organ and together shifting, taking up the breathing space within the upper abdomen.  Suffocation in this way could be deadly.  The uterus could continue to move about the body, and each location where it may reside would create unique symptoms, facilitating diagnosis (Hippocrates, Diseases of Women I).  It was determined that virgins and elder women were most at risk for this particular affliction.  The underlying cause was that the uterus had become dry, and the prescribed method of wetting the uterus (heternormative intercourse; namely, semen) was believed to be unavailable to them.

Treatment for uterine suffocation resulting from retention of menses: “Rather, they greatly desire coitus because of the abundance of matter that they have. Therefore, it is a sin against nature to prevent this, and to keep them from having sex with the man they choose. This practice, of course, goes against custom, but that is off the present topic.”

Buchet, Luc, ‘La necropole gallo-romaine et merovingienne de Frenouille (Calvados). 1978

If access to semen and sexual activity were limited or unattainable, the next best treatment was fumigation with herbal medicines.  This treatment was based on the theory that the uterus had a sense of smell.  An example of how a wandered off uterus was treated is putrid odors placed in in the nose while sweet odors were fumigated into the vagina so that the uterus would run away from the disgusting odors near the head and be drawn down to the sweet odors of the lower abdomen.  This fumigation of the vagina (more accurately, the vulva) was done using a fumigation pot.  The Dutch translation of the Trotula, held at the Copenhagen, Der Kongelige Bibliotek, depicts fumigation pots in period (MS GKS 1657). 

Menstruous Women & the Side Effects of Menstruating

The evils of menstruating women were varied and severe.  Impure menses- that of menstrual blood as opposed to “seed”- posed great potential harm to sexual partners in the form of illness.  The generation of a fetus from impure menses, for example, would cause grave illness in both the child and the sexual partner. “It is harmful to have sexual intercourse with these women, because children who are conceived tend to have epilepsy and leprosy because menstrual matter is extremely venomous.”  It is well documented that men who have intercourse with menstruating women would like wise contract leprosy themselves, although sources disagree over whether this was isolated to leprosy of the penis or more systemic. “A man should be especially careful not to have sexual intercourse with women who have their periods, because by doing so he can contract leprosy, and become seriously ill. The veins from individual bodily members come together in the testicles, and therefore when the testicles are wounded the whole body is quickly affected. Thus, as Diasidus says, “If you knowingly go with a menstruous woman your whole body will be infected and greatly weakened, so that you will not regain your true color and strength for at least a month, and like a liquid adhering to clothes, this stink will corrupt a man’s entire insides.’” Later in the same work, “It is harmful for men to have sexual intercourse with menstruating women because should conception take place the fetus would be leprous. This also frequently causes cancer in the male member.”

While leprosy was the most common malady to be transmitted via impure menses, some sources were less descript.  Nevertheless, the malice of women would not be ignored when discussing the transfer of bodily malignance via sex. “Some evil women know how to inflict a wound on men when having sexual intercourse with them in the last state of the moon (referencing menstrual cycle), and from this wound may incurable illnesses arise if remedies are not taken immediately. In the male penis, all sensitive veins run together, and therefore when it is wounded the entire body is affected.”  Likewise, “When women have their menstrual periods, the commentators claim, out of vindictiveness and malice they wish to injure the penis of the men who have sexual intercourse with them. Since there is menstrual blood in the vagina it enters the wound on the penis and infects it with its venom, because the penis is a porous and thin member which quickly absorbs this matter; and because all veins come together there, it is quickly dispersed through the body.”

If the reader at this point believes that merely avoiding sex with menstruating women would be enough to protect oneself from contracting cancer, leprosy, and other malignance, they would be wrong.  Menstruating women suffer from what the author has colloquially termed the vapors.  “Do not go near a menstruating woman, because from this foulness the air is corrupted, and the insides of a man are brought to disorder.”  Also, “When men go near these women they are made hoarse, so that they cannot speak well. This is because the venomous humors from the woman’s body infect the air by her breath, and the infected air travels to the man’s vocal cords and arteries causing him to become hoarse.” The medieval medical explanation for the vapors informs us that the evil and vile nature of menses travels up through the woman’s body in the form of air, and exits the thinnest membrane of her body, the eyes.  Yes, reader.  Poisonous vapors are emitted from the eyes of menstruating women.  If this were not terrifying enough, the vapors kill babies.  “It should be noted that old women who still have their monthly flow, and some who do not menstruate, poison the eyes of children lying in their cradles by their glance… This is caused in menstruating women by the flow itself, for the humors first infect the eyes, then the eyes infect the air, which infects the child. …What happens in women who do not menstruate is that the retention of the menses results in an abundance of evil humors, and old women no longer have enough natural heat to digest such matter. This is especially true of poor women who are nourished by coarse food, which contributes to the poisonous matter. Therefore non menstruating women are even more seriously infected, because the menstrual flow has a purgative function.” 

We learn, then, that one should fear not only menstruating women, but non menstruating women, old women, and impoverished women. “Note that old women ought not to be permitted to play with children and kiss them, because they poison them to such a degree that sometimes they die. The reason for this is that in these women the natural heat is so deficient that the menses collected in them cannot be expelled. Since these menses are venomous, they are continually borne to the eyes. Because of the porosity of the eyes, they infect the air, which reaches the child, for he is easily infected because of his tenderness. This infection is caused especially by old women and poor women, because old women do not work and poor women consume gross foods, and therefore their humors are more venomous.” With all the warnings that menstruation is poisonous and venomous, Magnus proactively addresses the obvious question: How do women not poison themselves when the menstruate? “Someone might ask why women do not poison themselves if they are poisonous. The answer to this is that venom does not act in itself but rather in its object.” So… that settles that then.

References: 

Lemay, H. R., & Albertus, . (1992). Women’s Secrets : A Translation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus’s De Secretis Mulierum with Commentaries.

Wood, C. T. (January 01, 1981). The doctors’ dilemma: Sin, salvation and the menstrual cycle in medieval thought. Speculum (cambridge, Mass.), 710-727.