Menstruation in the 1700s and 1800s

Question

I am just wondering about womens periods in like say the 1800s, like in Little House on the Prairie, how would girls learn about their period when them got it, and wouldn't they be like, AAAAHHHH im bleeding into my underclothes!! can i have a little menstruation history here?

Answer 1

well my mom said she had to make pads out of old rags and wash them out by hand UGH...can you imagine Kotex was the only pad when I grew up you had this belt contraption with hooks ,,,crazy stuff Someone told me when they grew up the Kotex boxes were wrapped in butcher paper so you couldn't see what they were lol  we have come a long way baby

Answer 2

Unless they were still teenagers and unmarried, menstruation wasn't that much of a problem for women. That was because they were either constantly pregnant or nursing so they almost never had them.

Answer 3

Well, to be frank, you don't need a biology professor to tell you how menstruation works.  Girls learned about it from their mothers, or other older female relative.

They didn't have disposable products like we do today, so they probably used rags and washed them.

Answer 4

Usually their mothers would tell them.  But my mother started her period early (and this is less than 100 years ago) and her mother hadn't got around to telling her.  She thought she was dying at first.

s*x education was also sometimes hard to come by.  Boys were usually told by older boys and men, but many people thought that girls shouldn't be told too much until just before they got married.  So shortly before marriage the fiancee would be told what to expect on her wedding night.  Can you imagine the shock?  

Pregnancy was a bit of a mystery too for many women.  When my grandmother was pregnant with her first child (still less than 100 years ago) she asked an older friend, "How will the baby come out?"  The wry reply was, "Same way it got in!"

Answer 5

the mothers taught the girls from young age everything about woman's health and place in society

the fathers taught the boys everything they knew

Answer 6

Well, I'm sure they didn't have the pads/tampons that we have now where everything is easily disposable. If anything, they probably used a version of tissue paper &/or rags & had to clean their underwear often.

Answer 7

I have heard that they just used rags that they had to wash out and dry as needed.  It must have been h**l. Esp. for those with really heavy periods and bad cramps.  They prob. couldn't lay in bed and complain (unless they had servants), but still had to go do all the regular labor feeling like Sh*t.  I have thought of this too, to remind myself how wimpy I am sometimes.

Answer 8

Like most girls (and boys) who live on farms, they would know quite a lot about reproduction just from being around animals which are being bred for wool, meat or whatever.

Specifically for girls, they didn't have the radio or magazines to learn from, so would learn from their family or friends.

If they had older sisters they would know ahead of time, because most people shared bedrooms with their siblings and there wasn't much you could hide from each other.

There is actually a Museum of Menstruation (really) on line The link is below.

It is a very interesting read!

Cheers :-)

Answer 9

It really depended on your class.  Girls who lived (and worked) on farms were probably a little more knowledgeable about such things than their more privileged counterparts.  These girls (from what I have read) were very sheltered and denied knowledge about their bodies.  When first menstruation did occur, it was probably a bit of a shock to say the least.  Although most came to understand that their menses came monthly, because reproduction as a whole was a taboo subject, I doubt many of them realised why it happened.  Before disposable products came into use, cloth pads were used.