What Netflix Got Wrong About Lizzie Borden's Real-Life Health Issues

If you're taking a class on the 19th-century Lizzie Borden trial, refrain from using Netflix's "Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story" as a study aid. Though undeniably successful, the dramatization of one of America's most famous murder cases takes tremendous liberties. Among the biggest things Netflix got wrong were two health issues that the real Borden didn't have.

For starters, the fictional Borden is shown having heavy periods, as well as signs of painful periods. In one scene, the Borden character experiences such a strong flow that it seeps through her dress and onto a sofa. However, there's no evidence that the real Borden had that type of condition. If she did, she would have had to bleed profusely, as Victorian women wore multiple clothing layers. 

That said, the real Borden's periods were discussed as part of the investigation process. Police officers who explored the home found a bucket of blood-soaked pieces of fabric. Borden said they were there because she'd been menstruating, which was a common practice at the time for soaking up menstrual blood. While disposable pads were introduced a few years before the Borden case, the products weren't that well-advertised, and thus vanished (albeit temporarily) from stores.

The second made-up health issue in the Lizzie Borden-focused season of "Monster" is considerably less common than the idea of a heavy flow. The fictional Borden discovers she has an imperforate hymen when her maid, Bridget Sullivan, notices that her genitals can't be penetrated.

An imperforate hymen is a real condition in which the hymen is so thick, it blocks the entrance to the vagina. Per estimates, it only happens to about one in every 1,000 women. In modern settings, a medical professional may notice if a baby has an imperforate hymen. However, if a teenager doesn't get her period but has pain, a gynecologist can diagnose the problem and order treatment to open the hymen safely.

There's no evidence that the real Borden had an imperforate hymen, which incidentally would have prevented menstrual blood from flowing out of her body. Thus, she wouldn't have been able to bleed through a dress, nor would her doctor have been able to substantiate her claims of her being on her period at the time of the murders. Still, despite the creative liberties "Monster" took with Borden's reproductive health, the real Borden did undergo some legitimate health problems as she aged.

After being acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother, the real Lizzie Borden moved into a house in the same town; she lived there first with her sister and then alone until she died in 1927.

Near the end of her life, Borden needed gallbladder surgery; per one account, she wasn't the nicest patient in the hospital. The operation marked a period of declining health for Borden that ended in her death from pneumonia. Curiously, according to her death record, the cause of her demise was myocarditis (heart inflammation). A 2023 article in Circulation Research supports the concurrent existence of both conditions, noting that pneumonia-induced inflammation can adversely affect heart health.

With that said, Ella Beatty, the actress who portrayed Borden on screen, doesn't expect audiences to think that she was trying to be the real Borden. "I was exploring a person that we were imagining and creating using details from the real person's life to animate and fill in the blanks," Beatty told Netflix.