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 know we are having larger babies due to obesity etc, but surely even a small baby would have been very risky if the women were having babies as young teens? Was life expectancy for women significantly less than men?

I've read some of the writings of early white settlers in Australia, who describe the indigenous people urinating and defecating at random, so I'd guess that being continent was not universal at all

The Australian aborigines were nomadic people - I think that makes a huge difference, It might even, as with many animals, be a way of marking out territory - letting other tribes know that certain areas of land were occupied, even though there didn't seem to be anyone about.

Fascinating question.

On the subject of animals the BBC has this to say www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150420-why-do-women-have-periods
Very few other animals menstruate, and most are primates. Other primates lose less blood in the process than we do. Generally unused womb linings are re-absorbed in other mammals.
There's some theory on there about why women's blood loss is so copious, relating it to an evolutionary struggle between women and foetus. I don't know what to make of it tbh!

And as some have said - menstruation is not the norm. Very few animals do so. It's something very 'at odds' (seemingly) with evolution and especially so during childbirth - it's amazing that we're still here

TerryWogan, throughout history childbirth has been the big killer of women. If you survived it often enough - if - women could become older than men, but there were never as many women survivors as there were men.

There’s a book about mitochondrial DNA - the seven daughters of eve

I read that years ago Oftick - it's brilliant!

I would recommend it to anyone

I’ve often wondered about this myself and this is a really interesting thread.
The only point i can make is. Animals (dogs do anyway) go on heat when they at their most fertile. However, when a woman has a period it’s at their least fertile. At what stage of evolution did that difference happen?

JasperSln I started my periods when I weighed 51/2 ran and they lasted 10 days so get what you mean

I can't believe only one PP (weenurse) has referenced the documentary biographical series Earth's Children, ie Clan of the Cave Bear and sequels. All answers are there.

(seriously, I read these as a young thing and have later in life been quite impressed at how many things she got right, she really did a lot of research)

My contribution of facts to the thread is based on a recent short series on Swedish TV about the earliest inhabitants of Scandinavia/Sweden. Very interesting! I can summarise if anyone wants, but just wanted to say that presenter said (while talking about the skeleton of an old woman) that as long as you survived your childhood you might live a long time, since the population was so sparse that infectious diseases didn't spread. Also, the plague came with the Yamnaya culture.

In some tribes a menstruating female is banished to a hut until finished. Suppose in cave women days there wouldn't be so many around. Population very very low, conditions very harsh with survival into 20s. If not pregnant you would be dead!

Very few animals have constant periods - rather episodes of heat. I would image the progression to constant periods came after relative safety of tribes and ability to manage regular bleeding. IE constant fertility led to more children rather than less because more chance of pregnancy and didn't make people unwell.

It was fairly common in lots of cultures (including fairly recent British) to kill one twin. In some cultures twins AND their mothers were killed/driven out. However the idea that you can’t feed twins or siblings is inaccurate.

The Red Tent is an interesting read about early Jewish attitudes to menstruation (fiction!). I’d guess rags/pants were common.

For those saying moss etc. - how would they have kept it in place in the absence of knickers? Do you think they packed it internally?

@Itwouldtakemuchmorethanthis ecofemme.org/natural-menstruation/

The Australian aborigines were nomadic people - I think that makes a huge difference, It might even, as with many animals, be a way of marking out territory - letting other tribes know that certain areas of land were occupied, even though there didn't seem to be anyone about.

That's not the same as incontinence though. And again if the person making the observation decides it's a weird place to go to the toilet that doesn't mean there wasn't a reason.

I just don't see why we would have the biological ability to be continent but not the knowledge that we have it.

By the same token maybe we can hold our periods in we just haven't figured it out yet.

I have nothing to contribute but just wanted to say thanks all for such a fascinating thread!

They would have started their period between 15-18 and be dead by 30 if they were very lucky (ie were infertile). Most were dead by late teens / early twenties. So there probably weren’t very many periods to deal with. At most one child before death; which is why ancient cultures prized women who had already successfully given birth once.

There is a difference between not being continent and not having toilets.

Nomadic tribes won’t have a regular pit or whatever and it wasn’t that long ago that crapping in a corner was common here.

as I said @Lalliella I doubt it.

Pterodactyl tampax?

Less periods coz of poor nutrition?

I'd love to sit in a hut. People brought you meals on trays, you know.

Five days of peace and quiet, lovely.

Can't see today's treatment of menstuating women - getting on a packed tube at 7am feeling sick, with a cramping tum and clots dropping into your tights, is much of an evolutionary advance.

Aboriginals would also kill newborns if there was a multiple birth, to leave only one child to raise thus preserving the 3-4yr age gap amongst successive births and so they would only have one very young infant to feed and carry (but in times of plenty they would steal older, weaned children from other tribes).

Both my dd were ebf, spent a lot of time being carried or in slings, and I co-slept. My periods returned at 8 weeks and 12 weeks after having them. Obviously just one example but it always surprised me.

Fascinating. Have always wondered about this - in terms of leaving a trail for the sabre tooths (or equivalent predators).... Like others upthread I read clan of the cave bear as a teen and was impressed by moss use. Maybe lie down in a cave is not far from truth, maybe this is why so many cultures have a taboo about menstruation. Apart from the obvs patriarchal 'othering' factor. Maybe we did lay low for a few days. Wonder why we evolved periods? I mean a useful biological feature that we are fertile very regularly - but why just humans and not most other mammals?

Interestingly, in S India I remember seeing embarrassed teenager being made queen for the day - all dressed up in bling and enthroned as she had begun her 1st period. She did look mortified, but I rather liked the celebration aspect. Mind you, possibly just a cultural advert for a fertile daughter!