10 Ridiculous Theories Doctors Used To Believe About Women’s Genitalia
And how they persist in many medical beliefs today.
Throughout history, doctors have developed some creative theories to understand women’s bodies. The female body bled, bloated, gave birth, and produced milk. That had to be witchcraft.
Much of this misinformation was born out of the ignorance that fed superstitions. If doctors couldn’t dissect female bodies, they couldn’t understand female bodies.
Unfortunately, those misunderstandings also caused fear. And when people have fear in their hearts, it plants the seed for hate and brutality.
Theory #1: A woman’s womb wanders.
In Ancient Egypt, the Kahun taught that wombs wandered around their bodies like a lost puppy.¹ One minute, her uterus was peacefully asleep, and the next minute…it was slamming into her lungs, punching her stomach, and bumping up against her liver.
The Edwin Smith Papyrus advised women to drink concoctions of grease and beer to stop their womb’s peregrinations.² This cure probably got women drunk with indigestion.
The Ebers Papyrus had another creative solution — the right smells could coax a woman’s wandering womb back into place. Noxious odors…
