While we worry about screen time and step counts today, women throughout history dealt with something far worse: untreated pelvic floor injuries. This isn’t just medical trivia. It’s a story of survival and creativity that shaped women’s health for thousands of years. Before modern medicine existed, women had to find their own ways to handle conditions that doctors barely understood and society refused to discuss.
When Nobody Understood Women’s Bodies
Picture this: your internal organs are literally falling out of your body. For women in ancient times, especially after childbirth, uterine prolapse wasn’t horror fiction. It was real life. The oldest medical texts from Egypt and Greece document this problem. But here’s the thing: male physicians didn’t prioritize understanding female anatomy. So their solutions were pretty rough.
Ancient healers tried manually shoving organs back into place. They used hot steam treatments. They even made women do handstands. The idea was simple: push everything back where it belonged. Did it work? Probably not. Often, these treatments made things worse.
These early doctors were working blind. They could see the problem from the outside but had no clue what was happening inside. Much of ancient medical history was desperate guesswork. Many treatments likely caused infections or more damage, turning a painful condition into a deadly one.
Getting Creative: Pessaries Made from Produce
Eventually, someone came up with the pessary. These devices were inserted vaginally to hold things in place. Early versions were made from whatever people could find: polished wood, oiled linen, half-onions, even pomegranates. Yes, you read that right. Women were using fruit as medical devices.
Some of these might have helped temporarily. But they often caused their own problems. Irritation, infections, devices getting lost inside the body. Not exactly ideal.
Ancient Greek texts described various pessary designs. The Romans used them too. The basic concept stuck around through medieval times. But doctors still didn’t understand pelvic floor muscles or connective tissue. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that anatomy knowledge really improved. Even then, pessaries got fancier - made from rubber, glass, or silver - but the underlying problem remained poorly understood.
Modern Medicine: Better, But Not Perfect
The late 1900s brought real progress. Researchers finally started studying pelvic floor muscles seriously. Physical therapy became a thing. Surgeons developed better techniques, using synthetic mesh to strengthen weak tissue. It seemed like we’d finally solved this ancient problem.
But even modern solutions hit roadblocks. In 2008, the FDA warned about complications from vaginal mesh. They repeated those warnings in 2011. Some patients had severe problems. This shows a pattern that’s lasted centuries: we’re still searching for safe, effective treatments for conditions like pelvic organ prolapse.
Quiet Heroism Through the Ages
From Egyptian herbal treatments to Renaissance pessaries, women and healers kept trying to fix what was broken. These struggles happened in silence. Society considered them too improper to discuss openly. Women dealt with pain, discomfort, and shame while searching for relief.
The medical texts that mention these conditions are brief, but they reveal something important: a stubborn refusal to give up. Women kept looking for ways to feel better and live with dignity.
Today, we talk about pelvic health more openly. Looking back at these primitive, often dangerous treatments helps us appreciate how far we’ve come. It also reminds us how much we still don’t know. The human drive to fix physical problems hasn’t changed. But now we have better tools and, hopefully, better understanding of what women’s bodies actually need.