Women and disease

preliminary approaches

Abstract

 In Portugal, there is no abundance of work, within the scope of women's history, on specific diseases of the female sex, although childbirth and the inherent risks are very present in medical literature, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries. Without intending to fill this gap, we intend, with this article, to make known, among other aspects, the diseases that most affected women in different contexts, the way society and medicine viewed the female condition and it was justified the alleged inferiority of women to men, what therapies were used to combat the ills they suffered, what products and processes used to practice abortion. In order to achieve the established objectives, we essentially resort to medical literature and studies that deal with the theme that is the subject of our work.

KEYWORDS: Woman. Disease. Medical Literature. Therapies.