Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: menstrual cycle

  • Multiple personalities are taking over me

    Prekshya ParajuliLouisville, Kentucky, United States In a world where days unfold with habitual grace,I find myself caught in a strange, erratic chase.Not half an hour past, yet hunger calls again,A craving that burns despite my daily strain. Eight hours a day, I toil without much complaint,But today, mere hours in, exhaustion paints my faint.A friend…

  • A brief history of menstruation

    Fangzhou LuoPortland, Oregon, United States After a few failed attempts to redirect a flirtatious student to “higher pleasures” like music, the Ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Hypatia resorted to revealing where she was in her menstrual cycle to deter him. The philosopher who recorded this—Damascius—does not specify if this student was Orestes,1 who remained a…

  • Bloodletting and the treatment of menstrual disorders in early modern England

    Rhianna ElliottCambridgeshire, United Kingdom Bloodletting, also known as “phlebotomy,” was a common preventive and therapeutic medical practice in early modern England. Its theoretical foundation was in humorism, the ancient medical system where bodily health depended on the balance between four fluid humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile). Yet even amongst lay people with…