Vicarious menstruation

Historical accounts of ‘male menstruation’ have already been discussed on this blog by Lisa Smith. But there is another aspect of the history of menstruation that is fascinating to a modern reader: the phenomenon of ‘vicarious menstruation’, in which a woman bleeds regularly from another orifice, or even from a wound. While modern medicine still recognises conditions in which other mucous membranes bleed along with, or instead of, the womb lining, the cases from the past seem to be well outside what is thought to be possible today. I think this is one of those occasions on which attempts to diagnose the diseases of the past with modern disease labels just have to admit defeat. The belief in such diversion being possible goes back to the Hippocratic medical texts, which state that a nosebleed is a good thing if menstruation is suppressed.

In 1838 the physician Fleetwood Churchill described a case a colleague had seen: Mary Murphy, aged 21, a patient at Sir Patrick Dun’s teaching hospital in Dublin. ‘During her stay she missed a menstrual period, and was shortly afterwards attacked by hemorrhage from both ears, which was repeated at intervals of from three to five nights, each attack lasting some hours. Very often from 15 to 20 ounces of blood were collected which did not coagulate, neither did blood taken from the arm.’ 15-20 ounces: that’s half a litre. Today we see a ‘normal’ period as being around 80 millitres or 3 fluid ounces! She was treated by ‘strengthening her system’, with foot baths, purgative medicines, and also leeches. The leeches were applied behind her ears and on her inner thighs, to take the blood before it came out, and to divert it back down her body.

The high point of belief in such bleeding was Martin Schurig’s Parthenologia historico-medica (1729), which brought together a huge range of cases from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to include menstruation through the ears, skin, gums, saliva glands, tear ducts, the crown of the head, fingers, feet, the stomach and lungs, the bladder, the bowels, the back, the navel, and even a cut on the hand, because ‘Nature searches for an exit route for the menstrual blood’. Physicians noted that the first reaction of a physician when confronted with ‘a delicate female’ suffering from such bleeding may be ‘alarm and anxiety’. What about the reactions of the patients, I wonder?

In the UK, ‘vicarious menstruation’ was only really challenged in the late 1880s, when the British Gynaecological Society discussed a paper by Dr Robert Barnes entitled ‘On vicarious menstruation’ which defended the theory of the blood taking the path of least resistance if ‘the normal route fails’. My late grandmother was born in 1888 and it is amazing to think that such a theory lasted so long!

- if you want to know more about Fleetwood Churchill, see http://rcpilibrary.blogspot.com/2010/10/cataloguing-fleetwood-churchill.html

Tagged as: diverted menstruation, gynaecology, menstruation

D H Kelly

I have a weak immune system, and before I sorted them out, my periods would cause a dramatic dip in my health each month. At this time, for all sorts of mechanical and infection-related reasons, I would frequently bleed from other orifices at the same time.
I wonder if this is why this theory persisted, back in the day when infection was everywhere, and things like dental hygiene and the treatment of wounds was less reliable – menstruation would put women’s systems on a low ebb, and perhaps they would observe that they were bleeding more, in general, at that time of the month?

It doesn’t fit passing menstrual blood from the ear *instead* of the womb, but still.
http://twitter.com/Merryrose31a SEAM

Interesting legends. As a woman I find them a little bizarre, but fascinating, nonetheless.

Helen King

BIzarre is indeed the word – well, one of the possible words! What I find so interesting is that this really wasn’t that long ago. It wasn’t until the 20th century that menstruation started to be understood!

well…

I bleed through my nose before or during my period, and have come to realised my ‘spontaneous’ hand bleedings are also during my periods (after having my children got very sensitive skin on my hands). Today I’ve got the nosebleed and 2 of this wounds, my skin naturally craks open and bleeds quite profusely, considering the small opening.

Ladybuggs Dc

I too have nose bleeds during my period, although this has only been happening to me in for the past year (I am 31 with 4 children) it frightens me every time but I’m glad I’m not the only one.

Librarypat

What an interesting post. It seems odd that this theory would even arise. However, no less odd than bleeding someone who has been injured and suffered blood loss. Of interest are the comments to this blog. They seem to confirm there is some sort of physical connection of these symptoms. Interesting that little seems to have been discussed currently. It would be interesting to know the validity and reason for the connection.

Helen King

There is a known connection between nosebleeding, at least, and menstruation; it is to do with the mucous membranes, not just the lining of the womb, being sensitive, I suppose because of the hormonal changes. So that connection could also work for other mucous membranes in the body. What is striking about some of the historical accounts of vicarious menstruation though is the sheer *quantity* of blood lost. We could speculate that these relate to women who also have an undiagnosed bleeding diathesis?

Milly2300

Through my back, night sweats, I have been sweating tiny drops of blood all over my sheets during my sleep for the past week. My period was very late. Interesting, that I found this site.