Earlier this month we talked about 19th century doctors who treated women for hysteria with vibrators. Well, Vice has the latest on this today…
In the late 19th century, doctors used vibrators to treat women suffering from hysteria, a fake medical condition that was actually a sexist way of saying, “This lady is very nervous, and she can only be healed by a giant phallic-shaped device.” Thankfully, by the the early 20th century, women were choosing to use vibrators, and in 1952, the American Psychiatric Association stopped seeing hysteria as a medical condition—which is why it initially seems odd that Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a leading Yale University obstetrician and gynecologist, is prescribing vibrators to Yale Cancer Clinic’s cancer patients to help increase their blood flow, give them a great sex life, and combat menopause’s side effects.