Period Gynecology

(Yes, I posted this to the Maunche list already, because I was threatening to rave about period gynecology until they dropped the latest dead rat, and a bunch of people said, OOH, please do. I will post more as I go along...)

The most important thing to know about period gynecology was that the 'suppression of menses' (ammenorhea) was considered one of the major health hazards. Physicians believed that regular menstruation was absolutely crucial for female health because it allowed bad humors and bodily poisons to be drained from the female, who was naturally prone to those bad humors. If suppression of menses continued long enough, the monasterial scholars believed, the uterus would start wandering about the body, and could cause fainting and choking by blocking airflow in the chest. Many treatments were tried for ammenorhea, herbal, medical and otherwise, but the most popular was sex, if it was at all possible. Anointment of the body parts with rose oil was something to be tried if sex was not morally possible.

Because the menses contained so many bad humors, sex during menstruation was a definite no-no, as it could cause the man to become leprous. Women past menopause were bound to have an excess of bad humors because of failing to menstruate (this was their excuse for the prejudices against old women).

Books like Trotula talk about asisting with faults and illnesses of the privy parts; sage, for instance, as a fomentation (cooked in hot water) or a wash, was considered to be a good treatment for itching of the privities (in both sexes), as well as 'the whites', but there were other treatments for those.

Many treatises told various ways to test a woman for virginity, but they were more concerned with telling whether a woman was pregnant, and various ways to encourage conception and the right kind of conception. For instance, the postures to be taken by the woman after intercourse are in most cases similar to those recommended by modern fertility experts. However, our doctors seldom recommend laying on the right side to try to encourage conception of a boy!

Various pessaries were used to treat female ailments, to encourage conception, and to prevent conception. Of course, most of the ones the scholars tell us about a re rather alarming, since they are trying to scare people off; but the regular use of menstrual regulation herbs probably terminated some of what we would call at-risk pregnancies.

More pre-17th century gynecology

This is all off the top of my head, you understand.
( cut for the very gender-squeamish )

Still more period OB-GYN

The two major 'threads' of gynecological texts before 1601 can be represented by the Trotula and De Secretis Mulierum.

Trotula of Salerno may or may not have been a real woman, there is some argument about this. However, the major manuscripts that generally are labelled the Trotula manuscripts were attributed to her in period. Trotula was supposed to be a woman physician at the 11th century medical school of Salerno, where women were known to have studied and taught. In later years, male, University-educated physicians were prone to make fun of 'Dame Trot' because of their abhorrence of women medical personnel; however, there's no question that much of the gynecological writing of the period was influenced by those manuscripts.

Of course, medieval and Renaissance obstetrical and gynecological 'knowledge' was also influenced by the writings of Aristotle (who didn't believe that women had a separate opening for urine) and by Galen and other Greek and Roman medical writers. The result of that tradition, especially in Italy, is works like the pseudo-Albertus Magnus text, De Secretis Mulierum, Of the Secrets of Women. This text, written by a very suspicious monk or monks, is such a marvel of misanthropy that Christine de Pisan complained about it. It was probably influenced by the extremely heavy emphasis on fertility and conception in well-off Italy in the Renaissance

( Cut to protect the squeamish )