Historical myth: a woman has a fetus floating around inside her?

Question

I think this was a Victorian myth or older, something like females would behave differently or have different ailments depending on where some sort of fetus-looking creature was inside her...it could travel around to different parts of her body.

It might have been linked to perceptions of hysteria/insanity, or it simply may have been a theory about reproduction.

I'd like more information or links about this myth...10 points to whoever gives me a good lead!

Answer 1

You're talking about the "Wandering Womb"
Particularly curious, enthralling, and troubling to the medical writers of antiquity was the female womb. The Greek word for it was hystera (from which we derive the word "uterus"). Since it was an item lacking in the male body, the male-dominated medical establishment was never quite able to bring it into the "norm" of human anatomy; for them, females were always alien and the "other". And the fact that the male body had no place for a womb may explain one of the most peculiar of ancient medical fallacies: the wandering womb.

The wandering womb was actually just one manifestation of a broader set of problems that females were prone to, problems which fell under the general rubric of hysteria or, literally, "wombiness". The ancients believed that a woman's very femaleness was something that was apt to betray her at any moment, and drive her to distraction. If her womb acted up in some fashion, then she would be bound to suffer all kinds of mental and emotional instability as well. Virgins were particularly prone to the brand of hysteria that arose when menstrual blood was prevented from leaving the uterus. It then backed up in the body cavity, and drove the girl mad, making her psychotic, delusional and suicidal. The only cure was to induce menstruation (or at least a nosebleed) as soon as possible. "My prescription," says one Hippocratic writer, "is that when virgins experience this trouble, they should cohabit with a man as quickly as possible. If they become pregnant, they will be cured." We can certainly see the interests of patriarchal society operating in this prescription!

But the wandering womb was an even more peculiar problem. According to many writers, from the Hippocratics in the Classical age of Greece to the physician Aretaios during the Roman empire, a woman's womb was liable to detach itself from its regular home, and wander off at will through her body. Such vagrancy naturally created a host of unpleasant symptoms for the woman, the commonest of which was "hysterical suffocation", as the displaced womb deprived the body of breath.

Answer 2

Answering this question means stereotyping. Some of the point may be true for some for some time. Not necessarily all points will be true for all women all time. Hence, it is a good question but respect Woman as she is is the answer.

Answer 3

Strange myth. Everyone knows the stork brings the baby. There is no fetus.

Answer 4

Arr be a frightenin likenin tae what methinks hae goon awry with me first mate, arr.

Arr thinks all the worms he drank from oot all them bottles of Mezcal arr floatin aroon inn his brainpan.

Answer 5

It's not the foetus, it was the uterus. Hysteria was also known as the wandering uterus.
http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=paq.066.0098a

Answer 6

Its true. That's why guys have to manipulate the womb frequently.