Knowledge about women’s body was minimal or plain guessing for a long time because the patriarchy kept women out of important roles. Zaria Gorvett from bbc says “Plato believed hysteria was caused by the mourning womb, which was sad when it wasn’t carrying a child. His contemporaries said it arose when the organ wandered around the body, becoming trapped in different body parts. The latter belief persisted well into the 19th Century, when the disorder was famously treated by bringing women to orgasm with early vibrators.” Isn’t that fascinating? First off, doctors made “hysteria” a diagnosable physical illness only in women. They wrote off any problems women wanted help with as the womens fault for being too emotional or having an overactive imagination. And then as treatment, male doctors brought women to orgasm, which is more for them than the women because it’s a temporary relief of symptoms. This lack of knowledge by male doctors is extremely dangerous to womens health. Although we’ve come a long way, male doctors just don’t have the experience or empathy to treat women correctly.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180806-how-the-menstrual-cycle-changes-womens-brains-every-month

JOHNSTON-ROBLEDO, Ingrid, and Joan C. CHRISLER. “The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation as Social Stigma: Positioning Periods: Menstruation in Social Context.” Sex Roles, vol. 68, no. 1-2, Springer, 2013, pp. 9–18.