A Royal History of Medicine: How Noble Ladies Fell Ill, Were Treated, and Died

Is it really easy to be a queen? Would you want to take her place in an era when there were no antiseptics, no pain relief, and no reliable contraception? Are you ready to live the fate of Hürrem from “The Magnificent Age,” who had a real historical prototype? Women gynecologists and women midwives will help you make sense of this—by telling little-known, often dramatic episodes from the family lives of the most famous European rulers. Readers will learn what people believed back then when it came to illnesses, what sometimes bizarre methods they used to treat them, how pregnancy and childbirth unfolded, how the first gynecological operations were performed, and what close-kin marriages in royal dynasties led to.

The authors—a team of practicing doctors and creators of the pro.gynecology blog—assembled rare facts from the history of obstetrics and gynecology in aristocratic circles under the guidance of Dr. of Medical Sciences, Professor Irina Lapina. They then interpreted these facts through the lens of clinical experience. The result is an educational and captivating journey through the past—and, to some extent, the present—of medicine, able to fascinate and move everyone.