Period Products Throughout History
By: Kyrie Gray
Tags: Women, Technology, History, Feminism, Culture

Menstruation has been around for thousands of years. Humans as a species bleed more than any other mammal. As result they had to find ways to deal with their monthly flow. When you look back, you’ll realize we live in a golden age of periods compared to what they went through before.

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The earliest account of period products can be found in ancient hieroglyphics. From what scholars have been able to translate, women used papyrus, sometimes with the aid of sticks, to staunch their flow.

In China, the earliest recorded way in which women dealt with their periods was by using cloth and sand. They’d put the sand in cloth and make sure it was tightly bound, before strapping it to themselves. Once the sand was saturated they’d dump it, then rinse and reuse the cloth until their periods were done.

All over the world women depended on whatever absorbent material they could find to keep their blood in check. This might mean plants like moss or other grasses. Some were known to use wool or rabbit fur. Japanese women also stuffed paper up their vaginas and changed it quite regularly. Whatever did the trick, women were likely to use.

Some cultures considered the period so taboo that they had menstruation huts where girls and women were sent to keep their filth separate from the village. Sometimes several women stayed in the hut at once. While some cultures didn’t mind getting to relax with their friends for a few days, others were (and still are) put in dangerous situations without any ability to get help if trouble occurred.

As history continues cloth becomes more wildly available and cheap. From old cloth women were able to construct rags to stuff up there, or they could pin in it bloomers after the 1850s, which would at least keep dresses clean. Though most working-class women experienced periods so light throughout the 1300s to 1700s that they simply bled into their clothes and washed them later. Only upper-class women with regular access to meat, nutrition, and rest were known to bleed early and regularly.

Later in the Victorian Era, the period apron came into being and women used it for several years. The idea was simple enough. A belt to keep the “sanitary cloth” in place. The apron allowed the back of their dresses to remain clean and prevented leaks on whatever surface they might be sitting. Since underwear was still not common, many women used this contraption if they could afford it, or they used the “rag” if they could not.

Women have WWI to thank for access to cheap disposable pads. Materials used to stop excessive bleeding was transferred over to women’s period products. Suddenly they don’t have to wash rags, they could have condensed bandages that keep them and their clothes dry. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was more appealing than cutting up cloth or washing dirty cloth every month.

After WWI women were on the go. Working, dating, living their lives. They were also wearing underwear and tighter clothing than they ever had before. This is when the period belt became wildly popular. Already showing up in the early 1900s, it was finessed and patented in the 1920s, and would hold a sanitary cloth in place until a new one was needed.

In the 1930s inventors made advances for the period. The period cup saw its beginnings. The tampon was invented and soon after a better tampon with an applicator so women can more easily use it without getting their fingers messy.

Yet none of these products take off in popularity for one simple reason. Women were afraid of losing their virginity. In fact, the tampon itself was first only marketed to married women. So the period belt with sanitary napkins continued to be used well into the 1950s, with only a minority of women using the tampon.

By the 1960s women were wearing tighter clothes and hated the period belt. Their prayers were answered when an adhesive strip, so simple but perfect, was added to the pad which made it possible to stick it directly in underwear. Pads finally achieved a level of comfort they had not seen before.

Over the next serval years changing antipodes toward sex, women, and virginity made tampons wildly popular in western countries. Now women are seeing a resurgence of period products both new and old. Many have an environmental message, boasting reusability, in order to save the planet. The Diva Cup can be used endlessly if treated well. Period absorbing underwear needs only to be washed. Plus reusable pads are back, now prettier, and more sanitary. Some also use IUDs to stop their periods from even occurring.

Who knows what new inventions will come about in the next serval years? As long as we bleed, we will find ways to stay dry and clean. At least now it’s becoming less taboo and more options are available.