9 Misconceptions About Menstruation

Pliny the Elder had some interesting ideas about menstruation. He wrote that period blood has several “monstrous effects,” including ruining crops, spoiling new wine, causing gardens to shrivel, and killing the bees. The Roman philosopher is far from the only person to deem menstrual blood particularly unclean or outright dangerous. The Bible says menstruating women and anything they touch is unclean. Even today, people are encouraged to hide their sanitary products and, in some parts of the world, are even kept home from school and isolated in special huts while on their periods due to the myth that someone who’s menstruating is dirty. 

But there is nothing uniquely dirty or dangerous about menstruation. It’s true that it’s more than just blood—there’s also endometrial lining and vaginal secretions in the mix—but there’s nothing about this combination of bodily fluids that makes it act like some sort of super crop and bee-killing weapon. As long as a menstruating person is practicing proper hygiene, they’re no more unclean than anyone else. 

On this episode of Misconceptions, host Justin Dodd, unpacks some myths about menstruation, from the idea that people who have their periods are unusually unclean to whether or not menstrual blood is to blame for animal attacks.

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