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Plato lived and wrote his work during the medical enlightenment era. Before the understanding of cells, or the micro chasm in our bodies, the medical myths and assumptions grew into assumptions that women were simply “small men.” Ladies, we are NOT small men.
Even in modern times, researchers use male rats and do research on men because (and I’m quoting a researcher here), “estrogen gets in the way.”
When you think of Plato, one might things of a true innovator, brilliant mind, and progressive pioneer of human life itself. But look more closely when you want to learn more about female science, biology, and our unique physiology, you start learning how entirely insane and utterly clueless men really were (and in so many ways still are) in their view of women.
Case in point – the Wandering Womb. One description of the theory of a "wandering womb" comes from Aretaeus, a physician from Cappadocia, who was a contemporary of Galen in the 2nd century AD. They believed the uterus traveled around the body. Seriously.
Can you believe that Plato and many others believed that a “displaced uterus” was the cause of many medical pathologies in women? The belief is first attested in the medical texts of ancient Greece, but it persisted in European academic medicine and popular thought for centuries.
In ancient Greece it was believed that a wandering and discontented Uterus was blamed for that dreaded female ailment of excessive emotion, hysteria. The disease's symptoms were believed to be dictated by where in the body the offending organ roamed. It was not religious belief but a social belief.
Women have long been seen as at the mercy of their biology. In the ancient medical world, it was believed that a 'wandering womb' caused suffocation and death. Menstruation and pregnancy were thought to make women the weaker sex, both physically and mentally. In fact, menstruation was believed to be necessary because it was purging evil and illness every month. The best way to fix this, of course, get pregnant. This is why many girls at the ripe age of 14 were married off to stop this female illness. I am not making this shit up.
In ancient Greece, it was becoming increasingly common to write women off as “mad,” or not having orgasmed enough. It was believed that women could be released from these conditions through sex, and that was many of the treatments recommended to women suffering from hysteria involved.
They believed the uterus was an “independent animal” in the body, able to wander around, consume the lungs, diaphragm, heart, voice… seriously “wander around”… can you believe it? It’s true.
And women wanting to study human science, were put on trial for practicing medicine. In Elinor Cleghorn’s book Unwell Women, she writes, “Hippocrates emphasized how women’s bodies and illnesses needed to be dealt with very differently from those of men. He stressed how important it was for physicians to “learn correctly from a patient the origin of her disease.” The cure for Hippocratic uterine pathologies, from the madness of suppressed menstruation to the horrors of womb suffocation, was as much social as it was medical: marriage, ideally by the age of fourteen, regular sex with one’s husband - who was usually around the age of thirty – and multiple pregnancies.”
They believed a woman who has not borne a child becomes ill from her meses more seriously and sooner than one who has borne children.
Dare I say that women were burned at the stake, called witches, and should be executed because of their madness and their attempts to help other women.
Now, why is this something I’m sharing in this blog… well, I find it fascinating that, while science has advanced so far from these times, women are still struggling to get the right medical treatments for their unique physiology. Women are NOT small men. Puberty, perimenopause, menopause, post menopause… are points in time that truly need better science, better research, and deeper appreciation.
As a post menopausal woman, I am sharing this wisdom to my younger women who perhaps are having multiple symptoms and being told either their crazy, needing medications – antidepressants, cholesterol, high blood pressure, and so many others to manage their issues but missing that most of these things are caused by hormonal fluctuations.
If you have: mysterious and sudden joint pain, fatigue, digestive issues, bloating, weight gain, excessive tartar in the mouth, jaw pain, sleep issues, hot flashes, mood swings, depression, anxiety, brain fog… all of these are signs of hormonal imbalances.
Now, here’s the thing. All of these issues have a few true root causes that nobody talks about but addressing them can help balance hormones without MT or HRT (menopause therapy or hormone replacement therapy).
Listen women – you must demand from your physicians, OBGYN, and any therapist that is helping you with symptoms that you check your hormones. The sudden autoimmune issues, body aches and pains, and fatigue are not in your mind. These are changes in hormone regulation and fascia and your gut health play a leading role in this regulation.
Leave me a comment and let me know what you think?