Way back 8 years ago -- that seems way back to me. We're talking pre-Kindle. Pause to think. Anyway, way back then I answered a reader question, which led to a blog about menstruation in the past. I thought it worth repeating.
The original question was: "Why don't women in historicals get PMS and chew holes in everyone around them?" Here's what I wrote, somewhat updated.
My first response is that mine rarely do because I rarely did. I'm one of those annoying women who had very little problem with menstruation other than the general hassle of it. No particular mood changes, no cramps. We write what we know.
It would be interesting to know how many women regularly have PMS today, and even more interesting to know how common it was in the past.
The treatments suggested for lack of menses are quite alarming, but then it's clear that some would end a pregnancy, which was probably the point.
Jancy in The Rogue's Return did get grouchy. I thought I'd include a bit of the scene because it illustrates a couple of points.
In this case, it works with a significant theme of the book -- the difference in their stations. Jancy comes from a simple background and is unused to servants. Simon, though living simply at the moment and not extravagnt by nature, is an aristocrat, used to money not being a consideration. Her idea of decent thrift is his idea of ridiculous penny-pinching. He complains later that she pinches a penny where a St. Bride would pinch a pound.
Jancy and Simon are on a small boat, traveling down the St. Lawrence River to Montreal. When she gets up after the first night, she finds a spot of blood on her nightdress.
At least her valise was here, so she had a fresh nightgown, but how was she to wash the other? She couldn't, absolutely couldn't, let Treadwell do it, even if a gentleman's valet was supposed to do such things.
Dressed but without her drawers, she emerged and unlocked her chest. She dug around until she found her cloths and the sling that kept them in place, and then stood to retreat behind the sheet again. Simon was looking at her. He knew.
"There's a blood spot on the sheet," he said. "I'm sorry if you'd rather not talk about it, but I think in this situation it would be rather difficult. No child, then."
A touch of sadness in his voice made her ask, "Do you mind?"
"No, of course not. As you said, you don’t want to be with child during an ocean voyage. But our children will be welcome when they come. Will you have a hard time of it?"
"No, but... Never mind."
"What is it?" he asked, so prosaically that she told him.
"I can't imagine how to discreetly wash my nightgown and cloths. And Treadwell will see the sheet."
"I can't do anything about that, but as for your nightgown and cloths, throw them away."
"That would be a sinful waste!"
"Throw them away. The cloths, at least. If necessary, buy more in Kingston or Montreal."
"But...."
"I can, I believe, afford rags for my wife. I'm not rich, but I'm not a pauper."
"You don't know the meaning of rich and poor. You have no idea!"
"Oh, don't I? Hal's laying out most of the money for this journey."
She opened her mouth to score a point, but he quickly added, "But I'm not so poor that my wife needs to launder her monthly rags."
"And your wife's not so foolish that she'll throw money away!"
They glared at each other, but then Simon asked, "What are we arguing about?"
She straightened. "I'm sorry. I get short-tempered at this time."
If a couple are living in close quarters and menstruation happens, he's probably going to know. If the book covers more than three and a bit weeks of such living, it's going to happen, and the reader needs to know. Why try to avoid it when it throws interesting light on the characters and their relationship? How do the man and the woman deal with this aspect of intimacy for the first time? Does she try to hide it? How does she convey to him that it's happening, and that sex isn't possible. That's assuming that she sees it that way, but she probably does. How does he react to it?
Pregnancy
Getting a period or not getting one is a pointer to whether she's pregnant or not, which can be important. In The Shattered Rose we're told that Jehanne is thrown into a depression every month when her courses start. In Forbidden, Serena believes she's barren and due to the stress of the plot it takes her a little longer than necessary to realize she's missed her time. In fact, it's the woman she's living with who notices no cloths have been washed. Yes, they washed them.
About the practicalities.
Details about how women dealt with menstruation aren't in the letters and diaries, but we know that women with leisure did sometimes take to their beds for a few days. It might have been because they were suffering from cramps and PMS, but it might have simply been an excuse to keep to themselves and avoid hassle, because the ways of catching menstrual flow weren't efficient. It isn't until the last 40 years or so that they have been.
Some argue that many women simply bled into their clothes, but I've never seen primary sources to back this up, and as there's plenty of evidence of women in the past, often in primitive communities, making pads from whatever was available I have strong doubts.
Some women prefer to use cloth pads now. There's a page here with examples and ways to make them.
As far as I'm concerned, women wore cloths that were folded into into pads. Sometimes they were actually sewn into permanent pads, but I suspect that's rare because it would make them harder to launder. Yes, they had to be washed and dried. They were generally called rags -- the saying "on the rag" comes from that -- but the pieces of cloth could well be neatly made and hemmed like a handkerchief.
They held the pads on with a wide strap back to front which was attached to a belt, or the pad itself was long enough to attach to the belt. The rig was not too disimilar in principal to the ones used until not long ago. In England we called them sanitary belts and sanitary napkins. I suspect that even when women didn't normally wear underpants of any kind (ie up to the regency) they might have worn them during menstruation for greater security. People have generally been practical.
Do you have anything to add to my knowledge base on this?
How do you feel about menstruation in novels? Just natural, or a bit icky? I have a feminist point of view that if we allow menstruation to be taboo we're undermining womanhood, but you may disagree.
On the radio recently women were talking about keeping menopause secret because it would make them seem old, and I caught bits of that in old documents. I and my friends celebrated freedom from the monthly, and in practical terms, freedom from the monthly iron loss. Which side would you be on -- secrecy or celebration?
BTW, not connected to this post, but at this moment you can get book one and two of my Company of Rogues for 99c each as an e-book. This is definitely at Amazon, and is being matched at some other retailers. Prices around the world are unpredictable, I'm afraid.
Cheers,
Jo