# Women Traveling at 60mph Will See Their Uterus Fly Out? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2023, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227 "2023-03-15T16:54:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/1 "2023-03-15T16:54:09Z")
Sometimes, on FB, I’ll see a meme that confidently states that in the early days of locomotive travel, the warning was promulgated that if a woman were to travel at a speed of 60mph (it may have been considerably slower; I’m not sure when trains first achieved a mile a minute), she would have the harrowing experience of her uterus flying out of her body. Was that ridiculous assertion. really ever actually made? If so, by whom? And what facts known or theorized about human anatomy would have led someone to speculate that? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/2 "2023-03-15T17:00:11Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > what facts known or theorized about human anatomy would have led someone to speculate that? The real thing: > **[Uterine prolapse - Symptoms and causes](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/uterine-prolapse/symptoms-causes/syc-20353458)** > > Find out more about the symptoms and possible treatments, including surgical repair, for this pelvic floor disorder. The meme references misguided opinions about early train travel at unprecedented speeds. The best citation they found here is only about menses, so I lean toward urban legend. > **[People Once Believed That Women's Uteruses Would Fly Out On Speeding Trains](https://www.iflscience.com/people-once-believed-that-womens-uteruses-would-fly-out-on-speeding-trains-61343)** > > People Once Believed That Women's Uteruses Would Fly Out On Speeding Trains ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/3 "2023-03-15T17:00:12Z")
There is an analysis of this claim [here](https://www.iflscience.com/people-once-believed-that-womens-uteruses-would-fly-out-on-speeding-trains-61343), and it seems there is no evidence for that specific claim: > Though we couldn’t find reference to the specific speed referenced above, it seems even physicians of the time had concerns with regard to women’s bodies (likely tainted by a large helping of sexism), including the idea that her uterus would shift around and dislocate if she travels by boat or train just before her period. > > “If a woman sets out for a sea voyage or a journey by rail the day before her menses should appear, she will be very apt to skip one period, and perhaps more. Or, if the flow comes, she may experience greater suffering than usual. If it be too scanty, or too profuse, she may be very ill. As an indirect consequence, she will be likely to suffer from some form of uterine flexion or dislocation,” one physician writes in the [New England Medical Gazette](https://books.google.nl/books?id=9-FXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA71&dq=horse+riding+uterus+prolapse+train&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjVvrXn2_fXAhWIaFAKHVLZD60Q6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=%22journey%20by%20rail%20the%20day%20before%22&f=false), quoting a second doctor for good measure that “a displacement of the uterus is just as much an absolute fact as the occurrence of a hernial protrusion.” Edit: Damn, ninja’ed ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/4 "2023-03-15T17:03:42Z")
You’d think that early anatomists would have noticed that the uterus isn’t exactly free-floating among the viscera in a female cadaver. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/5 "2023-03-15T17:05:26Z")
But surely they would also have observed cases of actual uterine prolapse, and could have speculated on potential causes. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/6 "2023-03-15T17:08:04Z")
I’m trying to decide if flying uteruses are a bug or a feature when birth control was not reliable. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/7 "2023-03-15T17:08:32Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > You’d think that early anatomists would have noticed that the uterus isn’t exactly free-floating among the viscera in a female cadaver. If I remember correctly, the ancients believed precisely this, and that it was the wandering of the womb that made women so prone to emotional instability. Their, uh, argument and belief, not mine, obviously. Anyway, this is the basis of the word “hysteria” — literally becoming overemotional under the influence of the uterus. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/8 "2023-03-15T17:16:45Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > > > You’d think that early anatomists would have noticed that the uterus isn’t exactly free-floating among the viscera in a female cadaver. > > If I remember correctly, the ancients believed precisely this, \< SNIP \> Well, I can cut the ancients a little slack, as they didn’t have the reputation for medical grave-robbing that 18th and 19th century med students and their suppliers had. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/9 "2023-03-15T17:24:36Z")
And we haven’t come all that far. We no longer think that your uterus swinging around leads to female fragility, but swinging your dick around is still a metaphor for male strength. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/10 "2023-03-15T17:29:48Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > If I remember correctly, the ancients believed precisely this, and that it was the wandering of the womb that made women so prone to emotional instability. Their, uh, argument and belief, not mine, obviously. > > Anyway, this is the basis of the word “hysteria” — literally becoming overemotional under the influence of the uterus. Yeah I think this is the key point, in ancient times there was no expectation that the pontifications of the “experts” were actually based on observations and experiment, so the “founders of medicine” came up with a bunch of stuff that was trivial to disapprove but became accepted wisdom for centuries. What is interesting how long into the scientific era those beliefs persisted, especially for women’s health. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/11 "2023-03-15T17:41:59Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > What is interesting how long into the scientific era those beliefs persisted, especially for women’s health. And there’s still a huge amount of woo around even today, of course. It’s especially difficult to do properly controlled experiments with humans for medical treatments or morbidity factors like nutrition, because you can’t just ask living people to stop doing all the other things that introduce potentially confounding factors. And we are especially susceptible to the _post hoc ergo propter hoc_ fallacy with personal health: if someone sick just once takes a purported treatment and then gets better, it is _impossible_ to convince them that there may have been no causal connection. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/12 "2023-03-15T17:42:12Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > > [@Cervaise](#): > > > > If I remember correctly, the ancients believed precisely this, and that it was the wandering of the womb that made women so prone to emotional instability. Their, uh, argument and belief, not mine, obviously. > > > > Anyway, this is the basis of the word “hysteria” — literally becoming overemotional under the influence of the uterus. > > Yeah I think this is the key point, in ancient times there was no expectation that the pontifications of the “experts” were actually based on observations and experiment, so the “founders of medicine” came up with a bunch of stuff that was trivial to disapprove but became accepted wisdom for centuries. What is interesting how long into the scientific era those beliefs persisted, especially for women’s health. You keep saying “disapprove,” but from context, I think what you mean is _disprove_. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/13 "2023-03-15T17:49:43Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > flying uteruses Band name! ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/14 "2023-03-15T17:51:10Z")
This does prove that, even before social media and the Internet, humans made “misguided assertions”. They just didn’t travel as far or as fast. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/15 "2023-03-15T17:52:13Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > They just didn’t travel as far or as fast. Well not as far or as fast as uteruses, that’s for sure. On a related point, isn’t the internet a series of tubes? ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/16 "2023-03-15T17:56:36Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > On a related point, isn’t the internet a series of tubes? Well, there is YouTube, so you may be on to something. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/17 "2023-03-15T18:01:42Z")
I guess in a parallel universe, [youtube.com](http://youtube.com) might have been a website offering gynecological advice. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/18 "2023-03-15T18:08:49Z")
People believed all sorts of weird things 200 years ago, but the most antiquated is that the most important part of a woman worth protecting is her (well, not really “her’s”) uterus. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/19 "2023-03-15T18:35:22Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > flying uteruses Didn’t they open for the Flying Burrito Brothers? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227/20 "2023-03-15T18:37:50Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Didn’t they open for the Flying Burrito Brothers? Yes, along with their side-project band, Fallopia and the Tubes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-traveling-at-60mph-will-see-their-uterus-fly-out/981227.md?page=2)