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    13 Historical Facts About Periods You Didn't Learn In School

    Bloody hell.

    1. Some medieval women folded pieces of material to soak up their period blood.

    2. These early pads were called "clouts" or "rags".

    3. Sometimes your clout would come unpinned and fall on to the floor – to the horror of anyone who saw it.

    4. Some people (let's call them men) thought period blood was poisonous and could cause wine to sour, crops to die, and dogs to go mad.

    5. Many "experts" considered periods a monthly illness or disease that needed to be treated.

    6. If a woman didn't come on her period, some doctors would suggest taking blood out of her veins instead.

    7. If you didn't use a "rag", you might just let your period blood soak into your clothes.

    8. Red was a common colour for medieval and early modern petticoats – possibly to disguise the period blood stains.

    9. It was common to carry around nutmeg or little pouches of dried flowers to conceal the smell of the blood-soaked fabric.

    10. Some women even used moss as a sanitary pad.

    11. One method of stemming a heavy flow was burning a toad and wearing the ashes in a pouch around your waist.

    12. If a girl didn't start her period, she was told to insert wool soaked in pulped cucumbers and milk into her vagina.

    13. It was said that if you had sex on your period and became pregnant, your child would be born with red hair.