Do you remember learning about the menstrual cycle when you were younger? Perhaps one of your teachers was assigned the task of explaining reproductive health, or maybe you still recall your parents awkwardly clearing their throats before starting the dreaded “birds and the bees” conversation.
There’s also a good chance that your friends whispered what they knew: Cramps! Tampons! Cravings! And the terrifying thought of standing up to find a bloodstain on your pants!
As weird, scary, and confusing as menstruation sounded, at least pubescent girls knew what to expect, and the medical knowledge about it was well established. Now, imagine the opposite scenario: being raised in medieval Europe, a time when menstruation was so misunderstood that lies, speculations, and harsh judgments were cast upon women and girls, leaving them feeling not only ostracized but also ashamed.
Here are six medieval menstrual myths that emphasize the idea that “knowledge is power”—and that a lack of it can perpetuate harmful beliefs.
1: Menstrual Blood Was Considered Poisonous
Men believed that menstrual blood was toxic. Under this reasoning, they feared that women had the power to poison food. This concern about potential contamination reinforced the idea that menstruating women were dangerous, making it easy to picture them being excused from kitchen duties or shunned at the dinner table.
2: Impure, Too!
In addition to being considered poisonous, menstrual blood was thought to be impure. These supposed impurities were believed to give it magical powers. Menstrual blood was said to cause wine to sour, mirrors to cloud, swords to blunt, and trees and crops to die.
3: Menstrual Blood Was Seen as “Leftover Blood”
Believe it or not, it was Hippocrates who suggested that women bled each month because they simply didn’t use up all their blood. Menstruation, he argued, was the body’s way of expelling this “leftover” blood due to a woman’s sedentary lifestyle and her body’s supposed “inefficiency” in using the blood it produced. If a woman’s period didn’t arrive on time to release this blood, the solution was to remove it directly from her veins.
4: Period Sex and the Red-Haired Child Superstition
Men went out of their way to avoid having sex with a woman on her period. Rumor had it that if she got pregnant during menstruation, the baby would have red hair. This would make it obvious to everyone that the couple had engaged in sex when the woman was considered “unclean.”
5: Even Pre-Menopausal Women Were Shamed
Pre-menopausal women were believed to have “stored up a lifetime of excess blood” and were thought to release “poisonous vapors” into the air through their eyes and nose.
6: Doctors Tried to “Cure” Menstruation
Even though men in medieval Europe knew that women and girls of a certain age bled every month, menstruation was seen as a sign of disease, illness, or even a curse. Doctors went to great lengths to “cure” menstruation through various practices, many of them rooted in superstition.
They Were Wrong. Period.
There you have it—six medieval menstrual myths that reveal how women were treated in medieval Europe simply for experiencing a natural part of their reproductive process. Women had to devise creative solutions to manage menstruation, such as creating pads from moss, masking scents by carrying pouches of dried flowers, and even resorting to the bizarre practice of burning a toad and wearing the ashes in a pouch around their waist to stem a heavy flow.
Although these myths may seem ridiculous—and we bet that more than one made you chuckle—they underscore the importance of medical knowledge and the need for women to embrace their bodies and advocate for their health.
Next time you find yourself lamenting your period symptoms, you might reflect on this article and feel relieved knowing that no one is shunning you from dinner because you’re not, in fact, producing toxic blood capable of killing the trees outside your window.