The male body was commonly viewed as the anatomical standard.  Early anatomists often treated the female body as a place from which many hidden secrets could be unveiled. Treatises such as pseudo-Albertus' Women's Secrets, and a similarly popular work attributed to Aristotle, Aristotle's Masterpiece, presented the female body as a site of reproductive mystery. They emphasized the unique features of female anatomy, and often moralized these differences.

Look at this image from Jacopo Berengario da Carpi's Isagogis brevis.  How has the theme of "women's secrets" continued into the Renaissance?

(click on the image for more on the female body)