The history of Menstruation is an interesting one!

J ************************************************************************** Part 1: The ancient world Our story begins looong ago, in the ancient world, when man walked with Dinosaurs…. Not much is now about women’s hygiene in the prehistoric era, as nothing was recorded, however we know that women at this time had three main options for managing their periods:· Use something to absorb the period externally (like some type of cloth)· Use something to absorb the period internally (like moss)· Just bleedUnfortunately, as we haven’t found any ‘artefacts’ (that’s a euphemism) from this era relating to this subject matter, we simply don’t know L. But, we can learn from modern ‘primitive’ tribes (which are often used to help historians understand life in the prehistoric period as they haven’t progressed much) that women may have used herbs to suppress their periods. The story of tampons is known to date back to at least 15th century BC, Ancient Egypt, as it was recorded that women used softened parts of the aquatic papyrus plant to create disposable tampons. Egyptians also used papyrus to document the belief that menstrual blood had a healing effect and was used for some ointments (but only for women). This is interesting as it shows how crazy Egyptians were since they used menstrual blood in medicine. On to ancient Greece! At this period in time we know that women made tampons out of lint wrapped around wooden sticks, as this was documented by doctor Hippocrates. Hippocrates is renowned for his theory of the Four Humours (which technically wasn’t his originally, but meh). The theory states that the body contains four humours: Black Bile, Yellow Bile, Phlegm and…BLOOD! Now Ancient Rome (yay) During the Roman Empire, the Greek born doctor Galen built upon Hippocrates’ theory, stating that women experienced periods because they were not being able to rid their bodies of excess humours, as unlike their male counterparts, they didn’t worked all day and couldn’t do this by sweating. This caused a build-up of these excess humours until they were discharged as periods. As for methods of dealing with their periods, women used essentially the same methods of as they did in Ancient Greece, but they used wool instead of lint. Attitudes towards periods were presumably negative. Early Roman author and Philosopher, Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus) once wrote that: “Contact with [menstrual blood] turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafts die, seed in gardens are dried up, the fruit of trees fall off, 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 an incurable poison. ” Which shows the attitude people had to menstruation. I find this particularly interesting as it makes we wonder what else he wrote about, despite having no knowledge of the subject. .. . Israelite communities had a similar attitude towards menstruation. This attitude was derived from the Torah, (Leviticus 12:2) which states that: "A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. ” For this reason in ancient Israelite society, women who were menstruating were not allowed to sleep in their homes or visit holy places. Sounds fun. Part 2: The Medieval era In the medieval era, little progress was made in any the fields of hygiene and medicine. Methods of dealing with women’s ‘special time’ were no exception. Women in medieval courts took special precautions to avoid being detected (unlike today when your friends tell you that they just started their period while you’re eating bright red pasta or ask you if you have any tampons because they ran out (both actually happened to me)). They used expensive herbs, like nutmeg to cover any…odours. A lot of other methods of dealing with periods were more suspicious that practical (i. e. stopping cramps), due to Christian doctrine at the time (it was believed that period pain was a punishment from God, so seen as wrong to prevent it). There was also a continued belief that menstruating women were impure, which was imbedded into society to the extent that medical books stated that having intercourse with a menstruating women would cause a man to develop penile cancer. It was also commonly believed that a child conceived while a woman was menstruating would be deformed due to its ‘unlawful conception’. Contrary to their Christian counterparts, Native American tribes at the time revered women on their periods. Members of the Cheyenne and Apache tribes even announced when a girl had her first period and had hit puberty (so she was, a WOMAN! ). Some tribes even believe menstruating women were the embodiment of holy figures, and were more spiritually powerful, which is the reason why some sought out menstruating women for guidance. Part 3: Industrial Revolution to Modern day Nowadays in the West, we have progressed in our understanding of the causes and purposes of menstruation, as well as the treatment of menstruating women who are now allowed to sleep in their homes. Today women have many more methods of dealing with their menstrual flow, including: Tampons Pads And Menstrual Cups! (Which even allow women to swim on their periods. ) The first modern tampon (with an applicator) was patented in 1933, four years after its invention, by Dr Earle Haas of Colorado. Before this time tampons had fallen into obscurity, and most women used sanitary towels held in place by a belt, which was understandably uncomfortable. His invention was inspired by a visit to his friend, who told him she used a sponge to absorb her flow internally ( . http://i.imgur.com...). He trademarked the name for his product, and Tampax was born! But there was much opposition to tampons, especially from church groups. Thankfully for tampons, WWII broke out, and women working in factories during WWII due to the shortage of male labour found them more comfortable than pads, so sales of them skyrocketed. They are now used by 70% of American women today. Done! Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? Wait, I haven’t talked about Asia yet: In Japan, 1947 a law was brought into force by Japanese Labour Standards, allowing women to take leave on their periods. South Korea takes this one step further as under Article 71 of the Labour Standards Law, they are ensured additional pay if they don’t take any menstruation leave which they were entitled to. Other Asian countries with similar laws are: Indonesia (right to two days leave a month), the Philippines (which aimed to grant mandatory leave) and Taiwan where under the interestingly named ‘Act of Gender Equality in Employment’, women are granted three paid days of menstruation leave. These laws are likely to steam from the common belief in some Southeast Asian cultures that not resting during menstruation cause difficulties in child birth. In 2013, Russia produced a draft law which would allow women two days paid leave per month during menstruation, but the plan was promptly abandoned due to the work of Russian feminists who accused the law of being sexist and discriminatory against women. I also found a news story about a 26 year old Indonesian maid being charged with putting her ‘juices’ (another euphemism) into a pot of vegetables, based on the belief that feeding it to them would improve her relationship with her boss . I’m not too sure if the story is true L (it’s just sooo ‘seriously? ?’…), but is interesting none the less. Sources: . http://www.cycleharmony.com... I ran out of characters for sources :(