Period Drama How Victorian Women Dealt With Menstruation

Having your period sucks. I mean, the fact that blood is coming out of you on its own is enough to make a lot of people squeamish. But on top of that, you have to deal with the cramping, the headaches, the mood swings, the cravings, and don't even get me started on what happens if you sneeze. If you know, you know. But as bad as all this is, I still can't get past the thought of just how lucky I am to be born in a time when I have so many modern conveniences available to me, like flushing toilets, disposable pads, and of course, my beloved Tylenol. Can you imagine what women had to do back when they were using chamber pots and dressing in all those layers? Well, that's exactly what we're going to talk about. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Historiadame, and today we'll be discussing how Victorian women dealt with their periods. The Victorian era often has a reputation for being uptight and very conservative. And though people during the 1800s were definitely not as prudish as media often makes them out to be, there were still many things that were taboo in polite society. Discussions of sexuality and menstruation were not to be shared by good upstanding citizens. These were shameful and private topics that should only be addressed behind closed doors, if at all. The overall view that society had on menstruation was influenced by a lot of superstitions and misconceptions. It was seen not only as a taboo subject, but it was also tied to the way that women were viewed as a whole. Periods were a sign that women were weak and fragile, and for some men, proof that they belonged in the home. There were also some people who clung to the old ideas that a woman who was on her period was considered unclean and should therefore be isolated from polite society until she returned to normal. And it is because of these attitudes that it can be quite difficult to learn the finer details of how menstruation was dealt with in the past. Talking openly about menstruation is a very new concept. When it comes to Victorian writings that discuss it, resources are limited. Even books written by female writers don't go into detail on how such things affected daily life. This leaves us with medical journals, advertisements for hygiene products, and word-of-mouth accounts that were passed on through the decades. And when we have all these pieces, we can start to put together the bigger picture. So what did Victorian women do when that dreaded time of the month arrived? Well, it definitely wasn't as simple as it is today. Women in the 1800s didn't have access to things like indoor plumbing, flushing toilets, or department stores that were stocked with disposable pads. When it came to using the bathroom, your options were usually either the outhouse or the chamber pot. And if that wasn't inconvenient enough, methods of soaking up blood weren't usually disposable, so they required a lot of extra work. The most common device that was used was known as a T-bandage. These were strips of cloth that would be attached to a belt worn over top of your undergarments that was fastened in the front and back in order to keep it secure. This worked because Victorian drawers were split at the crotch, which meant that if everything was done correctly, you would bleed onto the strips of cloth and avoid soiling your undergarments. Some T-bandages might have also been sewn with a lining that allowed them to swap out layers of fabric between uses. These cloth pads could either be purchased from a seamstress or made yourself, and would often be saved, washed, and reused every month, unless you were considerably wealthy and could afford to throw them away after each use. Other solutions included things like using sea sponges or cotton, which was rolled up and secured in a cloth and then used like a tampon. And some women, especially in rural areas, didn't use anything at all, and simply bled into their many layers of clothing. Though, of course, unless you were blessed with a particularly light period, this must have caused a lot of extra work on laundry day. When it came to dealing with other aspects of menstruation, women were encouraged to get plenty of rest, avoid strenuous activities, and when the pain became particularly difficult to bear, they could sip ginger tea or use a hot water bottle. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that as bad as all of this might sound from our perspective, the average Victorian woman wouldn't have been dealing with her period as often as we do today. The average age for a girl to start menstruating was around 15 or 16, and many would stop by the time they hit their mid-40s. We also have to keep in mind that married women didn't really have access to any kind of birth control, so they spent a large portion of their lives pregnant, and therefore not menstruating. When Victorian women were having their periods, however, they also probably wouldn't have bled for as long or as regularly as someone in the modern day. Things like disease, pollution, and malnutrition were rampant during this era, so a lot of people wouldn't have been in the best overall health, especially if they were poor. This would have caused their menstrual cycle to become irregular or sometimes stop entirely. And though poor health is not necessarily a good thing, all of these factors would help limit how often Victorian women had to actually deal with menstruation. The 1800s brought forth new waves of scientific research, and as a result, a new understanding of the human body. During this era, doctors knew that a woman's menstrual cycle was tied to her ability to bear children and was directly connected to the function of the ovaries. But aside from that, they didn't have a solid grasp of how it actually worked and what its purpose was. Even still, not fully understanding menstruation did not stop Victorian doctors from making up questionable theories based on their own biases and partaking in their favorite pastime of telling women what they should and shouldn't do. There were a lot of misconceptions about menstruation that were perpetuated by the medical community. A woman's cycle was thought to either be the cause of or the direct result of various illnesses, and there were many doctors that became weirdly obsessed with monitoring it. Some believed that a woman's personality could directly affect how her period behaved, kind of like a weird Victorian version of star signs. Others were convinced that it was a woman's actions which directly affected it. In my research for this video, I even read one medical book where a doctor insists that it's very common for teenage girls to stop menstruating once they go to school because her body would be too weak to handle thinking and menstruating at the same time. Man, doctors could just publish anything back then, huh? But regardless of which theory of the day they believed, doctors had a whole list of opinions when it came to how women should handle their periods. Since menstruation was seen to be a sign of weakness and women were already supposed to be weaker in the first place, pretty much every doctor agreed that any strenuous activity should be avoided while menstruating. Things like sports, dancing, riding bicycles, eating certain foods, or being exposed to the cold were all hard no's. A woman should also avoid working or any mentally strenuous tasks during this time. She should instead stay inside, eating plenty of food and resting in bed. Now, of course, that didn't actually happen. Women had things to do just like anyone else. Their lives didn't screech to a halt just because they were on their period. They dealt with it, just like women always have. But regardless of how persevering they were, I for one am glad to live in a time when I have access to things like indoor plumbing. Hey everyone, thank you for watching. If you enjoyed the video, please consider leaving a like or a comment down below. If you have any interesting stories about you or your ancestors who had to deal with unconventional period products, I'd love to hear them. I think they're really fascinating. If you want to see more content like this, you can also subscribe to my channel and keep up to date on all the fun history videos of the future. But for now, I bid you farewell.