ABSTRACT
In North America the average girl begins to menstruate somewhere in her twelfth year, which is seemingly much younger than the average age recorded one hundred years ago, although it is not always clear how accurate past statistics are. Most American women have completed the menopause by the time they are fifty, although again there is great variation, with some women starting the process between thirty-five and forty, while others have regular periods until they are well into their fifties. One of the most backward and unscientific beliefs about menstruation was promulgated in the American Journal of Obstetrics in 1875, by a physician named A. F. A. King who argued that menstruation was pathological. He was undoubtedly influenced by the Victorian disgust for all sexual and reproductive processes, as well as by his strong belief that in Paradise humans had reproduced asexually. Still the belief continued that menstruation made women unable to deal with intellectual matters.
