Women with bleeding disorders are finally getting the attention they deserve and need in our community. Doctors and patients are often clued in when women present with menorrhagia. But when was menorrhagia, and quite possibly von Willebrand disease, first documented in history?
Our dedicated archivist, Richard Atwood of North Carolina, writes the following review of a book you may want to read.
Following the publication of the text Fierce: Women of the Bible and Their Stories of Violence, Mercy, Bravery, Wisdom, Sex, and Salvation, Alice Connor published Brave: Women of the Bible and Their Stories of Grief, Mercy, Folly, Joy, Sex, and Redemption. The subtitles are telling. In Brave, the author includes the story of an unnamed hemorrhaging woman who is mentioned in three gospel accounts: Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; and Luke 8:43-48 (p. 179).
To personalize this unnamed woman, Connor calls her Talia, meaning “gentle dew from heaven” in Hebrew. Apparently, Talia suffers from hemorrhages for twleve years. She spends all her money on doctors who cannot help her. Now exhausted, in pain, impoverished, and socially outcast, Talia is desperate to be healed. Afraid to speak to, or in awe of, the faith healer Jesus as he walks by, Talia reaches out to touch the fringe of his cloak. Mark and Luke relate that Talia is immediately healed by touching the robe. Matthew relates that when Jesus speaks, Talia is healed. All three Gospels confirm that Jesus says Talia’s faith healed the hemorrhaging (pp. 158-159). Healing miracles are sudden, unexplainable recoveries, even when women’s healthy and unhealthy bleeding is considered impure, or ritually unclean (p. 162)
The author mentions causes for prolonged bleeding in women, such as hemophilia and cancer, yet focuses on menorrhagia as the cause of bleeding for Talia. Menorrhagia is defined as a menstrual period lasting longer than seven days. This condition affects 5% of people who menstruate (p. 158). There is no clue in the gospel accounts for the location of Talia’s hemorrhaging. The author has a longer discussion on faith.
This text is enlightening from its in-depth descriptions of women in the Bible, and entertaining from the author’s wry humor. The book includes three pages for The Biblical Stories Themselves and Where to Find Them, five pages for Homework (a.k.a.) Ideas for Further Reading; and three pages for Notes. All the similarities and the differences found in the three gospel accounts of the unnamed woman touching the hem need to be compared and contrasted. Hemophilia and other bleeding disorders do not receive enough attention in the differential diagnosis for the prolonged hemorrhaging in the unnamed woman. The diagnosis of menorrhagia, and blaming the uterus, are too easily accepted as fact. The author is an Episcopal priest and college chaplain living in Cincinnati, Ohio, not a medical specialist.
Sadly, there is no mention of Sam Cooke, who sang the beautiful song “Touch the Hem of His Garment,” in 1959.
Alice Connor, 2021, Brave: Women of the Bible and Their Stories of Grief, Mercy, Folly, Joy, Sex, and Redemption. Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books. 189 pages.
