When I was reading My Little Red Book, I found myself curious about some of the sanitary products the women were talking about from yesteryear. Since I’m a frequent flyer on Google I did some googling, and as weird as it sounds, it was actually an interesting education in how far we’ve (thankfully) come, when it comes to our feminine products.

I found out that I’m not the only odd woman who is curious about such things. I actually stumbled across a website, MUM.org (as in, “Mum’s the word!”), which is actually run by a man, who also had a “Museum of Menstruation” out of his own home for four years. That has since been shut down, but he continues to post  interesting facts and pictures on the site about this sort of stuff.  (I’m still trying to figure out why a man would invest time into this topic, but to each his own I guess.)

I never thought about what women did back in the 1800’s when they got their period, but as I read I learned that a variety of things were used: grass, moss, rabbit skins (*shudder*), knitted pads, rags (which is where “on the rag” comes from) and “menstrual aprons”.

The apron is quite interesting. It is a like an apron, made of rubber, that is actually worn backwards, to protect the bum area and the clothes of women. There is also an area to hold pads, in which women would insert cloth pads and pin them in.

In these years, if cloth pads were used, they were either washed out or burned. For women that washed their pads, if they were traveling, they had special waterproof bags they would take with them, so that they could wash out the pads when they returned home.

Sanitary pads came about in Germany in the 1880’s, but if everything I read is correct, women in America were not allowed to have them, because of the Comstock Law. This law was in place to stop the exchange and trade of obscene literature and immoral articles. This mostly pertained to things like pre-marital and extra-marital sex and pornography, but for some reason sanitary products fell under this law as well. Figure that one out! Anyway, because of that, American women were out of the loop when it came to disposable sanitary pads until the 1920’s.

It was during World War I that nurses came up with the brilliant idea that the materials they were using to stop the flow of blood in wounded men (wood pulp bandages), could be used for menstrual blood. The first pads were actually very pricey, so women still weren’t able to buy them.

Although more convenient than the materials used prior (I’m still shuddering over rabbit skins), these first pads had their own issues. Some of the earliest were pinned on, but that quickly progressed to pads that were held in place by belts or suspenders.*

Then came the 70’s and women everywhere were liberated — in more ways than one. Now sanitary pads no longer needed belts, but instead stuck to underwear, thanks to adhesive. Although much more convenient, these weren’t the best the different manufacturers could come up with. They were bulky and uncomfortable and the materials they were made of weren’t all that absorbent yet. How many of us remember waddling as newly initiated teenagers, because of the bulk between our legs? I hated it and can recall fearing that the whole world would see the outline through my pants. What horror!

Of course, there were always tampons, though some of us had mothers that told us that we couldn’t wear them until we were married because they would take away our virginity. But for those of us that had moms that did let us wear them (or those of us that sneaked behind our moms’ back and had friends buy them for us, *cough*), we quickly discovered that these were much better than pads any day!

According to some articles I read, the ancient Egyptians and Greeks actually had their own form of tampons by using rolled papyrus (Egypt) or linen wrapped around a small stick (Greeks). I can’t imagine there was a great deal of comfort with those tampons but I can understand why they tried!

The first official tampon was invented in the late 1920’s — by a man, no less. Tampons hit a crisis when something called Toxic Shock Syndrome began emerging in women who were using them, with the peak of the crisis hitting in 1980. In 1982 the FDA began to take steps to warn women of the risk by putting warning messages on tampon boxes and educating women in how to use tampons with less risk involved (e.g. alternating with pads and using absorbency levels that matched flow).

In recent years, the menstrual cup has hit the market. This is a bell-shaped cup made out of silicon or latex and resembles a diaphragm. There are several different brands available, including the Lunette, Mooncup, Miacup, and Diva Cup. These cups are inserted into a woman much like a tampon and collect menstrual fluid. It is taken out 2-4 times per 24-hour period, washed thoroughly, and then re-inserted.

Finally, here we are, almost a decade into the 21st century, and some have gone back to how it all started — with cloth. Cloth pads, affectionately known as “Mama Cloth”, are popular with “crunchy” moms who are into saving the environment or money, sometimes both, and are made out of either flannel or wool and have a moisture-proof lining in the middle.

These pads are made privately by crafty moms who then sell them on sites like Diaperswappers.com or are sold by bigger name companies like Luna Pads. They tend to be expensive, but most declare the cost to be well worth it, due to the fact they are saving money each month from no longer buying tampons or pads.

Life has a funny way of bringing us full circle, and this is true even when it comes to sanitary products. Granted, the cloth pads these days are more advanced than they were back in the day, but still, it’s how this all started. Our daughters will probably start out like us, hating pads, moving to tampons, and then advancing on to cloth pads in an effort to save the earth and save money. It’s all a part of the cycle of life.

*Please note: the link provided may contain images that some find offensive.