In the US, Aunt Flo comes to visit, in Hungary, it’s called the monthly “oil change”, and in South Africa, your “granny is stuck in traffic”.

So many euphemisms, just to avoid having to utter the dreaded word: menstruation. However, the taboo surrounding menstruation is a quite recent trend in human history.

In ancient India, for instance, menstruation was regarded neither as shameful nor as something to be concealed. Rather, it was considered a divine gift, with the menstrual cycle often compared to the natural rhythms and seasons of Mother Earth. Menstruation was recognized as a natural and significant process, marking the transition into adulthood for the menstruating person. This moment was celebrated through the menarche ceremony.

The menarche is a girl’s first menstruation and is celebrated from 11 to 16 days. It was considered the girl’s entry into society, as she is now officially seen as a woman. Here, rituals and knowledge about menstruation are passed on to girls. They believed that positive memories of the first menstruation would ensure that all subsequent periods would be pleasant as well. Still, it was a two-sided coin, since the girl’s marriage often followed the menarche. In Indian culture at that time, marriage meant that the daughter became part of her husband’s family and was no longer permitted to visit her own, making it the last family celebration. Fortunately, nowadays, it is a coming-of-age ceremony that is barely celebrated anyway.

The attitude towards menstruation in ancient Greece was similar, where it was considered an indicator of a woman’s fertility and a cleansing for the body. The Greeks did not view menstruation as a purely female process and separated it from gender, as, according to their understanding, men could also menstruate. This menstruation, or rather bleeding, occurred in cases such as bleeding hemorrhoids. Therefore, the position of women in ancient Greece was not specifically linked to menstruation. Sadly, like in India, the girl’s marriage followed almost immediately in Greece as well. Furthermore, unlike in India, no special rituals have been handed down, so women mostly went about their daily lives as normal. 

So how did we perceive menstruation in modern Europe?

With modernity, the idea of women as physically inferior was finally invented in science. Darwin, being one of the best-known proponents of these beliefs, argued that all physical problems experienced by women should be regarded as a weakness. The male-dominated medical profession gladly accepted this view and used it to label many of the complaints women experienced during menstruation as hysteria. Since none of the men knew what was going on in a woman’s body, it was the perfect way of hiding their lack of knowledge.

Fortunately, hysteria is no longer considered a disease today. At that time, it mainly described the symptoms of premenstrual symptoms, ranging from abdominal pain, mood swings, and fatigue to dizziness. The word originates from the Greek “hysteria,” meaning uterus. So all these symptoms were supposedly related solely to the fact that women had a womb. Menstruation was no longer considered a simple cleansing process of the body, but stood for the “inferiority” of women. This view was held not only by science but also by the church, where menstruation was considered dirty and unclean. For them, however, it was not the blood that was dirty, but women as individuals who were considered spiritually unclean. Thus, the image of menstruation changed from a cleansing ritual and indicator of fertility to something disgusting and repulsive. 

The taboo surrounding menstruation has not existed since ancient times all over the world, as is often claimed, but only emerged at the beginning of the 18th century and the uprising of the Christian church. Today, this taboo is slowly being broken down. However, there are still many shortcomings, particularly when it comes to understanding menstruation throughout history. People often simply assume that our view of menstruation as disgusting and embarrassing must have always existed and is therefore logical. However, this is not the case and much research still needs to be done, so we could still learn a lot from the knowledge of our ancestors. 

Nelli Winzer

Sources:
Wieso wurde Menstruation so negativ gesehen? | fragen.evangelisch.de
Bullshit-Begriffe für das Wort “Menstruation”
Periode im antiken Griechenland: Was war anders? – Vulvani
From Riches to Rags: The Evolution of Menstrual Taboos in India | The Swaddle