Menstruation and the Female Body in Early Modern England

1. Introduction: 'Those Sweet and Benign Humours that Nature Sends Monthly': Reading Menstruation and Vaginal Bleeding. 2. What a small Excess is called Flooding': The Language of Menstruation and Transitional Bleedings. 3. Having the Benefit of Nature': Menarche and Female Adolescence. 4. 'Full sixteen and never yet had those': Representations of Early or Delayed Menarche 5. 'Women's Monthly Sickness': Accounting for Menstruation 6. 'Wearing of the Double Clout': Dealing with Menstrual Flow in Practice and in Religious Doctrine. 7. 'The Flower of Virginity': Hymenal Bleeding and Becoming a Woman. 8. The 'Cleansing of the Flowers after the Birth': Managing Pregnancy and Post-Partum Bleeding. 9. 'Women Grieve to Thinke they Must be Old': Representations of Menopause. 10. Conclusion