During the High Middle Ages, European medicine revived ancient Greek humoral theory, viewing menstruation as the expulsion of excess or corrupted blood, a sign of inherent female imbalance or illness. Influenced by Church doctrine linking it to Eve's original sin, menstruation became heavily tabooed, with beliefs that menstrual blood could spoil crops, dull mirrors, or harm others. Women managed with reusable cloths, moss, or free bleeding into layered garments, often in secrecy. This framework shaped societal views of women's bodies as unclean or dangerous for centuries, limiting public discourse and medical progress on women's health.

These taboos profoundly influenced medieval and early modern literature, where menstruation was rarely mentioned directly but symbolized female impurity or curse in works by male authors and religious texts. Chaucer and other writers navigated gendered bodily silences, while later poets like those in the Romantic era echoed lingering notions of female 'hysteria' tied to reproductive cycles. The suppression reinforced patriarchal literary canons that marginalized women's voices on intimate experiences until 19th-20th century feminist writers began reclaiming bodily narratives.