Gregory's ServerWhy was menotoxin theory - invisible poison emitted during menstruation - so popular?
Welp, the short answer is PERIOD STIGMA.
Since antiquity and earlier, there have been folk superstitions that menstruating women made wine go bad, or that they shouldn't touch this or that. Menotoxin theory put a scientific veneer on these beliefs.
The body of evidence backing up menotoxin was... well, bad to say the least. anecdotal data, poor methodology, poor statistical analysis, all-round bad science, but bad science which backed up some biases and beliefs.
The good news is, there is NO evidence that you're going about spraying out invisible lethal poisons when you're on your period, so water your plants, knead that bread and... yeah, maybe still don't inject your menstrual blood into rats.