The Age of Scientific Gynaecological Masseurs. 'Non-intrusive' Male Hands, Female Intimacy, and Women's Health around 1900

The closing decades of the 19th century saw the dawn of a new and popular trend in scientific Gynaecology: genital- or uterine massage. The method was invented by a Swedish Army Major and was extremely intimate, even judged by gynaecological standards. In retrospect the method can be understood as something that helped clear away the last traces of resistance preventing physicians to, in an obvious a non-shameful manner, approach women's reproductive organs and their associated problems. In an attempt to understand the method's popularity and scientific success better, it is related to a larger tension-filled debate found in the history of science. Its place in the anti-modernistic movement is also touched upon. Also added to the picture is a previously unnoted conflict displaying an inter-professional gender trouble found among the gynaecolocial masseurs, which illuminates how complicated the medical professions way to scientific supremacy sometimes was.