The Trotula ensemble, a set of 12th-13th century Salernitan medical texts attributed to or compiled around female practitioners like Trota of Salerno, provided some of the earliest detailed European discussions of menstruation, fertility, and gynecological care. These practical guides offered herbal remedies and advice for menstrual regulation, contrasting with purely theoretical humoral views. Circulated in Latin and vernacular, they represented a rare acknowledgment of women's health needs amid widespread taboos.

The Trotula texts influenced the transmission of medical knowledge into vernacular literature and herbals read by educated women and midwives, subtly informing depictions of female healers in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and later Renaissance writings. They provided a counter-narrative to dominant male-authored misogynistic medical poetry, paving the way for 19th-century women poets and writers who drew on historical female knowledge traditions to challenge patriarchal control over bodies.