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?

I recon they used animal hide/fur/wool etc and fashioned it into like a hammock, i read a book from a (fictional 😂) caveman's point of view and it mentioned this... It was a really bizarre book

Smoggle I’m not trying to fight with you. The family I saw where almost certainly hunter gatherers, it was a long time ago and I know what I saw. I doubt their world exists anymore. My point was really that IF their was enough food feeding and carrying two children, be they two years apart or twins, is possible. My personal observation and lived experience are not definitive, but in my opinion as valid as your sweeping generalisations. FWIW I regret sharing the experience as it is a special memory for me.

Itwould - I find it honestly bizarre that you would see an African (?) woman with two young children, assume she is a hunter gatherer, and from that observation decide that contrary to any research, stone age hunter gatherers would have had babies close together

@LarryGreysonsDoor that article was fascinating, thank you.

Surely though Stone Age women didn’t have much choice about the time period between babies.

No they wouldn't Larry, breastfeeding and carrying an infant for 3 years would naturally suppress ovulation resulting in 4ish year age gaps.

It wasn’t in Africa it was in Malaysia in the late 70s, but you’re right if you see a man standing in the undergrowth dressed in a loin cloth and holding a long bamboo, and a group further in hanging back obviously they’d turned up hours from anywhere dressed up (or in this case down) and stood there waiting on the off chance some small gweilo would drive by in order to bring it up on the yet to be invented internet decades later. .
Your absolutely right no woman could ever have had two children at the breast, unless they have a double buggy, a hotline to Ocado and left a large note to say they did so. I think less books and possibly a little travel might help. There are few wild places left, but perhaps you’ll find someone who remembers what more modern hunter gatherers were like. You’d have to receive as well as send though, and as I said I regret bringing it up so it would be a pity if you’re going to make others feel the same.

You’re not your, I’m sorry you’ve upset me and I didn’t proofread.

I believe you, it would take

@MedSchoolRat

Fascinating link, thank you!

You CAN breastfeed a lot and still start your period again very soon after giving birth... I only had 6 weeks post-partum

Some of the comments on here are very odd. They would always be pregnant or breastfeeding? Seriously? News flash, Infertility isn't a new invention.

But the majority of women will have had periods and pregnancies - many would have died in childbirth or related complications from childbirth

And many women have periods and fall pregnant while still breastfeeding

Infertility isn't a new invention.

No, but it's a medical condition not the norm. Obvously. The whole purpose of animals is to breed.

I notice you haven't pulled anyone up for saying they'd be walking around. People born without legs aren't a new invention either.

I doubt also that many cave women were leaving childbearing years until after they had established fabulous careers and when their fertility was beginning to decline.

Older Teenagers are usually extremely fertile.

They dont use infant mortality in the figures for average life expectancy. Modern historians are intelligent enough to remove that aspect. It mostly goes by the average age of skeletons they find now, and the average is still very low.

Women would have been having babies and considered as exchangable assests from their first period.

I breastfed and got my period back quite quickly. I was, however, told, that this has become more common as mother’s have access to sufficient nutrition to both sustain their own full health and that of the baby. Nutrients will always go to the child first, so in ancient times, it is more likely that periods were suppressed for longer when breast-feeding. I think the introduction of solid food has, at some stages in history, also occurred much later, so full breast-feeding May have continued much longer, too.

I also believe that good nutrition is causing periods to start earlier. Again, this perhaps suggests that in ancient times, women did not start period until a lot later.

Does being Hunter/gatherer always equate with being malnourished?

I lost my periods training for a half marathon. BMI of 21, i think it's varriable.

I have read somewhere that in medieval times women would usually only have 40ish periods in their lifetime, even if they lived until their 60s. This was due to later menarche (aged 16 or so), pregnancy and extended breastfeeding (except in posh circles where wet nurses were used so the posh woman could get on with producing heirs) and earlier menopause at 40 or so.

I know there are people who get periods back while exclusively breastfeeding but research has shown this is usually once baby is sleeping longer stretches (especially if they stop feeding between 2am and 5am when prolactin is highest) or having a dummy. In societies where babies are carried and co-sleep and have free, round the clock access to the breast, postpartum periods return much later. I'm guessing prehistoric humans lived very much in this way, as did medieval peasants.

I have had 4 or 5 periods since 2010 due to having 4 babies with 2-3 year age gaps and breastfeeding each until toddlerhood. Unfortunately my mum didn't go through menopause until she was 57 so I've got nearly 3 decades ahead of me once DC4 reduces feeds.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding would give women up to four-year breaks in periods. The’d conceive soon after puberty and produce a child every three to four years until menopause.

Infanticide is also pretty common to maintain that 4+ gap in tribal societies.

Yes to later puberty, many more pregnancies, longer /more frequent breastfeeding, dying earlier. At time of great physical stress ovulation can stop too.