Since the beginning of time, people with periods have resorted to desperate measures to plug our proverbial Hoover Dams: rock salt, opium, and elephant dung have all (unfortunately) been used.
The Magical Mystery Tour of Menstruation has made many stops in the last 100 years alone. We’ve gone from sad period bloomers to the cotton rockets we know and love today.
As menstrual products multiply, so does our understanding of who actually menstruates. It’s a common misunderstanding that only women bleed; in reality, people of many gender identities can (and do) get monthly visits from Aunt Flo.
Here are just some of the ways we’ve surfed the crimson tide:
Menstruators had the unfortunate task of pinning cotton rags to their underpants. They would simply wash the towels after use and save them for next time.
At first, the medicine was marketed as a pill for headache or toothache relief. But over time, period-havers began using it to relieve menstrual cramps.
Kotex started selling these pads, which were pretty advanced because they were disposable. However, they had to be worn with a “sanitary belt” that looked like a Medieval torture device.
“The initial discovery of the telescoping cardboard ‘applicator tampon’ was developed and patented by the Colorado doctor Earl Haas in 1931,” Bustle’s JR Thorpe explained. “But it was a woman, Gertrude Tendrich, who bought the patent and started to produce it, expanding from sewing tampons at home to distributing them under the now-famous brand name Tampax.”
Leona Chalmer’s rubber menstrual cup gave period-havers a more covert, convenient alternative to the painful rags of yore. Though the product didn’t exactly skyrocket in sales, in recent years, menstrual cups have had a renaissance.
Here’s how they were supposed to work, according to one patent:
“When folded along the axis and inserted into the wearer’s interlabial space, the topsheet maintains contact with the walls of the wearer’s labia.”
NOT TERRIFYING ROBOSPEAK AT ALL!
Naturally, these didn’t sell very well, and products like Fresh ‘n’ Fit Padettes were quickly out of fashion.
The pants are made of various fibers that allegedly absorb two tampons of flow. According to THINX CEO & Co-Founder, Miki Agrawal, the panties are “Science-y, tech-y magic.”
“We are using innovation to change the culture, and the conversation, around menstruation,” Agrawal said in a statement to Revelist.
title: “This Is What 100 Years Of Period Products Looks Like Bloody Details Included” ShowToc: true date: “2024-10-03” author: “Lucile Landford”
Since the beginning of time, people with periods have resorted to desperate measures to plug our proverbial Hoover Dams: rock salt, opium, and elephant dung have all (unfortunately) been used.
The Magical Mystery Tour of Menstruation has made many stops in the last 100 years alone. We’ve gone from sad period bloomers to the cotton rockets we know and love today.
As menstrual products multiply, so does our understanding of who actually menstruates. It’s a common misunderstanding that only women bleed; in reality, people of many gender identities can (and do) get monthly visits from Aunt Flo.
Here are just some of the ways we’ve surfed the crimson tide:
Menstruators had the unfortunate task of pinning cotton rags to their underpants. They would simply wash the towels after use and save them for next time.
At first, the medicine was marketed as a pill for headache or toothache relief. But over time, period-havers began using it to relieve menstrual cramps.
Kotex started selling these pads, which were pretty advanced because they were disposable. However, they had to be worn with a “sanitary belt” that looked like a Medieval torture device.
“The initial discovery of the telescoping cardboard ‘applicator tampon’ was developed and patented by the Colorado doctor Earl Haas in 1931,” Bustle’s JR Thorpe explained. “But it was a woman, Gertrude Tendrich, who bought the patent and started to produce it, expanding from sewing tampons at home to distributing them under the now-famous brand name Tampax.”
Leona Chalmer’s rubber menstrual cup gave period-havers a more covert, convenient alternative to the painful rags of yore. Though the product didn’t exactly skyrocket in sales, in recent years, menstrual cups have had a renaissance.
Here’s how they were supposed to work, according to one patent:
“When folded along the axis and inserted into the wearer’s interlabial space, the topsheet maintains contact with the walls of the wearer’s labia.”
NOT TERRIFYING ROBOSPEAK AT ALL!
Naturally, these didn’t sell very well, and products like Fresh ‘n’ Fit Padettes were quickly out of fashion.
The pants are made of various fibers that allegedly absorb two tampons of flow. According to THINX CEO & Co-Founder, Miki Agrawal, the panties are “Science-y, tech-y magic.”
“We are using innovation to change the culture, and the conversation, around menstruation,” Agrawal said in a statement to Revelist.
title: “This Is What 100 Years Of Period Products Looks Like Bloody Details Included” ShowToc: true date: “2024-09-11” author: “Leah Rayburn”
Since the beginning of time, people with periods have resorted to desperate measures to plug our proverbial Hoover Dams: rock salt, opium, and elephant dung have all (unfortunately) been used.
The Magical Mystery Tour of Menstruation has made many stops in the last 100 years alone. We’ve gone from sad period bloomers to the cotton rockets we know and love today.
As menstrual products multiply, so does our understanding of who actually menstruates. It’s a common misunderstanding that only women bleed; in reality, people of many gender identities can (and do) get monthly visits from Aunt Flo.
Here are just some of the ways we’ve surfed the crimson tide:
Menstruators had the unfortunate task of pinning cotton rags to their underpants. They would simply wash the towels after use and save them for next time.
At first, the medicine was marketed as a pill for headache or toothache relief. But over time, period-havers began using it to relieve menstrual cramps.
Kotex started selling these pads, which were pretty advanced because they were disposable. However, they had to be worn with a “sanitary belt” that looked like a Medieval torture device.
“The initial discovery of the telescoping cardboard ‘applicator tampon’ was developed and patented by the Colorado doctor Earl Haas in 1931,” Bustle’s JR Thorpe explained. “But it was a woman, Gertrude Tendrich, who bought the patent and started to produce it, expanding from sewing tampons at home to distributing them under the now-famous brand name Tampax.”
Leona Chalmer’s rubber menstrual cup gave period-havers a more covert, convenient alternative to the painful rags of yore. Though the product didn’t exactly skyrocket in sales, in recent years, menstrual cups have had a renaissance.
Here’s how they were supposed to work, according to one patent:
“When folded along the axis and inserted into the wearer’s interlabial space, the topsheet maintains contact with the walls of the wearer’s labia.”
NOT TERRIFYING ROBOSPEAK AT ALL!
Naturally, these didn’t sell very well, and products like Fresh ‘n’ Fit Padettes were quickly out of fashion.
The pants are made of various fibers that allegedly absorb two tampons of flow. According to THINX CEO & Co-Founder, Miki Agrawal, the panties are “Science-y, tech-y magic.”
“We are using innovation to change the culture, and the conversation, around menstruation,” Agrawal said in a statement to Revelist.
