How did cave women deal with periods?

[howmanyleftfeet]

How did our ancient ancestor women deal with periods before we wore clothes?

Periods must have been terribly inconvenient then - did they have periods the same as us?

Do the kind of apes we're close relatives of, have periods like us? Do other animals? Do they really just walk around bleeding?

I can't help wondering if maybe they didn't have periods as heavy / as long as ours. Am I right in thinking, sportswomen who are super fit often don't have regular periods? Presumably cave women would have been super fit and on the move a lot. (Or they wouldn't have survived). Did they perhaps menstruate less often?

Could it be that women didn't ovulate / menstruate except in quieter seasons when not on the move?

[DaisyDreaming]

I’ve wondered this before. I met someone who went and stayed with a naked tribe, she was naked and just bled, the shocking bit to me was she wasn’t allowed to eat for the duration of her period! She felt quite unwell towards the end of it


I wonder if cave women’s low weight helped too?

[MadisonMontgomery]

Women who are malnourished often don’t have regular periods, so that might have been a factor.

[Kpo58]

Why are we assuming that cave people were malnourished? They were probably much healthier than we are today.

[Saisong]

Between pregnancy, breast-feeding, stress, poor nourishment and low life-expectancy they probably didn't have many periods.

[Usingmyindoorvoice]

A combination of being pregnant and extended breastfeeding, until pregnant again.

[RevealTheLegend]

You’d be pregnant or breastfeeding most of the time.

Thanks to lower rates of infant mortality, the existence of contraception, etc we spend far less time pregnant than nature intended. We really aren’t meant to have this many periods.

[RevealTheLegend]

Oops. Slow typing. Xpost x lots

[Dressless]

@Kpo

I would imagine it was a combination of infrequent menstruation and just bleeding out.

A friend of mine has a female dog that hasn’t been sterilised. She puts a nappy on her when she menstruates (I don’t think you are supposed to though!).

[stucknoue]

They wouldn't have had many - pregnant and fully breastfeeding most of their lives with an early death. Today's last remaining peoples who live this sort life space their kids 3-4 years this way as do great apes. I also heard some use moss/ plants so soak blood

[howmanyleftfeet]

A combination of being pregnant and extended breastfeeding, until pregnant again

Of course, this makes sense. Bleeding every month (i.e. not being pregnant or BFing all the time) is a modern things isn't it?

But even then I'm not sure it's the whole story. e.g I exclusively BF but my period came back at 5 months.

Also, cavewomen would have been super fit - is our period going away when we're really fit (and coming back when we're not) an evolutionary advantage? Could it be that ancient women didn't ovulate when on the move, then did when they were more stationary? (Perhaps following the seasons / migration of their prey?).

[Weenurse]

Wool gathered from shedding animals and leather undies. Others used moss and other plant materials as per Clan of te Cave Bear series.

[AllTheChickensIHaveLoved]

Agree with pp they would have been pregnant or breastfeeding fully which inhibits periods.and you'd die young possibly in child birth.

[JasperSIn]

I wish people wouldn’t say being thin or low weight stops periods.

I’ve weighed seven and a half stone most of my adult life and my periods are regular as hell. You have to be seriously underweight to mess with your periods

[howmanyleftfeet]

Wool gathered from shedding animals and leather undies

And what about before that? Before they wore clothes?

[ShivD]

They probably weren’t ask squeamish as we are today either so it wouldn’t have been such a ‘thing’

[JasperSIn]

Some kind of animal skin thing?

[howmanyleftfeet]

They probably weren’t ask squeamish as we are today either so it wouldn’t have been such a ‘thing’

Yes I suppose this crucial isn't it.

[TerryWogansWilly]

I don't think it's about squamishness. It wouldn't have been great to smell of blood with wild animals about.

[Butteredghost]

They would have had far fewer periods due to later puberty, many pregnancies and extended breastfeeding.

But apart from that I suppose they just let it run down their leg like any other animal would - we are animals after all.

[Wineott]

Ugh I wish bf stopped mine. I'm feeding my nearly 4 year old and mine started again when she was 5 months 😭

[Dahlietta]

I’m not convinced by your assertion that cave women would have been super-fit. I always envision them pottering about looking after babies. I don’t think they did marathon training.

[Cel982]

It's not fitness that suppresses ovulation (and thus menstruation), it's being significantly underweight. It's seen in women with anorexia nervous, and in athletes who overtrain to the point that it interferes with normal hormonal regulation.

[AcidityRegulated]

What was the life expectancy of a cavewoman?

If she survived childbirth, and her periods started again quite quickly, she would probably just get pregnant again, no?

I wonder how many pregnancies the average cavewoman carried to term.

[EnthusiasmIsDisturbed]

Moss was used like a pad

I saw this on Bear Grylls

I guess many were pregnant or bf much of the time

[howmanyleftfeet]

We have no evidence that only men would have hunted - that's a modern, sexist view of the past.

Cave women would have likely hunted, you need to be fit for that.

You also need to be fit to avoid becoming prey, and fit to be constantly on the move, as they may well have been. It's not till farming that we put down roots and stayed in one place. Ancient humans would have likely followed the prey as they migrated, not stayed in one place.

Also, they were not far removed from the rest of the animals, living in nature. How many unfit animals do you see in the wild? If they have any predators after them, they're at risk of being eaten!