11. A Woman’s Monthly Cycle Was a Punishment From God
As a woman, getting your monthly cycle is never a pleasant experience. However, we understand that it’s a necessary and healthy part of fertility in the female body. Back in the middle ages, they had no idea why this was happening to women, so they assumed that it must be a curse from God, because of Eve’s sin in the garden of Eden. Because of this, doctors never gave women anything to alleviate cramps or pain, because it was punishment that we “deserved”. However, women came up with their own herbal plant medicines to help one another. Many nuns stopped menstruating, which served as “proof” that if a woman devoted her life to God, the curse of Eve would be broken. In reality, holy women were given such poor diets, they were often malnourished, which led to their menstrual cycle stopping.