Menopause or Madness? How Women Were Gaslit into Asylums for Having Hot Flashes and Opinions

A not-so-funny history that’s just absurd enough to laugh at.

There was a time when a woman’s uterus was considered a sort of ticking time bomb. Once it stopped being "useful" — i.e., producing children — it was assumed to take the rest of her body and mind down with it. And for women hitting menopause in the early 1900s, the diagnosis was often swift and unforgiving: insanity.

Forget hormone therapy and helpful conversations about midlife transitions. In 1905, if you were over 40 and feeling anxious, irritated, or (God forbid) questioning your husband’s authority, you might find yourself labeled “hysterical” and quietly institutionalized.

Because nothing screams “I’m mentally unwell” like... having hot flashes and a few opinions.

When Hot Flashes Met the Patriarchy

Doctors at the time genuinely believed that the uterus was the control center for a woman’s mental stability. So when menopause rolled in and reproductive function rolled out, it was assumed women became chemically unhinged.

Mood swings? Madness.

Irritability? Hysteria.

Disagreeing with

your pastor-husband Institutionalized.

about predestination?

Treatments ranged from “rest cures” — weeks of forced bed rest in darkened rooms — to surgical removal of the ovaries. Women were given bromides, opium, and alcohol-laced tonics. Anything to get them quiet again.

And worst of all, many women didn’t have a say in what happened to them. A husband could legally have his wife committed with zero medical evidence. Just his word.

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Meet Elizabeth Packard: Not Crazy, Just Done with the Nonsense

Let’s talk about Elizabeth Packard, a 44-year-old mother of six, living in Illinois in the 1860s. Her husband, a strict Calvinist minister, didn’t like her growing independence — or the fact that she was reading too many books and forming her own theological views.

His solution?

Have her declared insane and sent to the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane. No hearing. No medical evaluation. Just a husband’s signature.

Elizabeth was locked away for three years. She wasn’t mad. She was menopausal, probably a little angry, and completely right.

When she was finally released, Elizabeth didn’t just return to her life — she rewrote the rules. She took her case to court, won, and then spent the rest of her life advocating for women’s rights and mental health reform. She helped change laws across the U.S. to prevent husbands from having their wives institutionalized without due process.

Basically, she turned her institutionalization into a full-blown feminist uprising.

The "treatments" were worse than the symptoms

Here’s what menopause care looked like around 1900:

• Rest cure: Weeks of doing absolutely nothing — no books, no visitors, no stimulation. This was believed to “calm” the female mind.

• Surgery: Doctors sometimes removed women’s ovaries or uterus to "treat" nervousness.

• Tonics: Often just morphine or booze in a bottle, prescribed as “nerve medicine.”

• Asylums: Reserved for women who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, conform to what society thought they should be — obedient, quiet, and perpetually fertile.

  
  

Menopause wasn’t seen as a natural transition. It was a medical emergency — or worse, a moral failing.

Want to dig deeper (and maybe scream into a pillow)?

If you’re intrigued — or horrified — by all of this, there are some excellent reads:

• The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore

The real story of Elizabeth Packard, told like a psychological thriller. You’ll cheer, cry, and possibly throw it across the room.

• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  A fictional short story that captures the madness of being "cured" by forced isolation — based on the author's own experience.

  
  

• Women and Madness by Phyllis Chesler

  A feminist classic that explores how psychiatry has often been used to punish women for deviating from the norm.

  
  

• The Change by Germaine Greer

  A biting, bold take on menopause, aging, and the power women reclaim after their “usefulness” ends.

  
  

What’s the Moral of This Mess?

Menopause didn’t make women crazy. But centuries of dismissing, drugging, and locking them up sure made the world seem that way.

Today, we talk about menopause with (slightly) more nuance. But the old echoes remain — in how women’s pain is dismissed, how female anger is pathologized, and how society still struggles with the idea of older women taking up space, making noise, and refusing to disappear quietly.

So no, you’re not crazy. You’re just finally done being polite about it.

Ready to Rewrite Your Menopause Story?

If reading this made you want to scream into a throw pillow, you're not alone — and you're definitely not crazy.

The truth is, menopause isn’t something to suffer through in silence. It’s not a diagnosis, a downfall, or the end of your relevance. It’s a powerful transition — one that deserves guidance, support, and a whole lot more respect than it’s historically been given.

That’s where I come in.

As a menopause coach, I help women navigate this messy, beautiful, and transformative chapter with clarity, humor, and zero shame. Whether you're knee-deep in night sweats or just starting to sense the shift, you don’t have to figure it out alone.

✨ Let’s make this season of your life one you own — not one you Survive

https://www.ashleystehlik.com book a free discovery call or learn more about coaching with me.