Why Victorian Women Were Treated with Orgasms for ‘Hysteria’

You know a society is confused about women when its doctors start handing out orgasms like aspirin — and then don’t even realize what they’re doing. Welcome to the world of Victorian medicine, sexual repression, and a diagnosis that once covered everything: hysteria. It was the catch-all label that haunted women for centuries, blamed on their wombs, their nerves, and their apparent need for a very clinical kind of “release.”

And yes. That “release” is exactly what you think it is.

Hysteria: The Diagnosis for Being a Woman

In Victorian England and well into the early 20th century, hysteria wasn’t some fringe theory. It was one of the most common diagnoses for women. Feeling anxious? Hysteria. Moody? Hysteria. Too loud, too quiet, too tired, too curious, too alive? Definitely hysteria.

The root of the word comes from the Greek hystera, meaning womb, which tells you everything about how this “condition” was understood. The ancient belief was that the uterus could literally wander around the body, causing havoc. Centuries later, the idea evolved (slightly), but the core belief remained: women were emotionally unstable by nature, and their bodies were to blame.

Menopause, menstruation, even just not having sex often enough (or at all) could all be potential triggers.

The “Treatment”

Physicians, desperate to help their patients (and keep them coming back), turned to a hands-on method. Pun totally intended.

Doctors would manually stimulate their female patients to what they called a “hysterical paroxysm.” What we now recognize as a full-blown orgasm was, back then, thought to be a medical release of built-up tension. Back then, nobody used the word orgasm. It was far too scandalous and dirty. This was medicine, thank you very much.

It was also time-consuming. Treatments could take upwards of an hour (I mean… yes), and the waiting rooms were packed (not surprised here either). Some doctors (understandably) complained of hand cramps. No joke. I would add a couple more jokes here, but I don’t think my editor would deem them as appropriate, so I’ll just keep it as it is.

Ladies and Gentlemen — Enter the Vibrator

To deal with the demand, 19th-century inventors got to work. In 1883, British physician Joseph Mortimer Granville patented a mechanical device to make the job easier. He never intended it for hysteria, though. He actually designed it for sore muscles, but the medical community saw its potential elsewhere.

Thus, the electromechanical vibrator became one of the first domestic electric appliances, arriving in homes before the vacuum cleaner and the iron. Yes, women were ordering these gadgets from catalogs under the label of “medical massagers,” using them in private for their “nerves,” and society just… let them.

It was a loophole in the era’s sexual repression: if no one admitted what was really going on, no one had to confront it. And that’s totally my way of dealing with uncomfortable stuff as well.

When Freud Ruined Everything (Again)

Then came Freud. As always. I really don’t like this dude, but whatever. Let’s mention him as well.

Sigmund Freud looked at hysteria and thought he saw what everyone else had missed: a deep connection between sexuality and mental health. In his view, hysteria came from repressed sexual desires. This, of course, scandalized the medical world. Shortly after, hysteria began to disappear from medical textbooks. Not because it was solved, but because society had to start acknowledging what it had really been about all along.

Hysteria may be gone as a diagnosis, but its fingerprints are everywhere. Women are still dismissed as “emotional” or “crazy” for being assertive or angry. Medical professionals still don’t always take female pain seriously. And sexual health is still tangled in stigma, double standards, and silence.