Remedies, Cloths and Tampons: How Women Managed Their Periods Over the Centuries

Overview, as Menstrual Hygiene Day approaches on May 28.

Remedies for regular periods

Since ancient times, medicine has been interested in menstruation, but it fails to understand them for centuries.

“It was thought then that women must regularly evacuate this blood to be in good health,” Nahema Hanafi, lecturer in modern history, at the University of Angers, told AFP.

This view has dominated medical circles and society over the centuries.

In modern times (15th-18th centuries), to promote the regular evacuation of this blood, "women apply remedies, enemas for example, perform physical exercises or take emmenagogue plants" (which regulate the menstrual cycle ) like the rue des jardins, describes the historian.

Homemade reusable sanitary napkins in January 2022 in Nigeria Kola Sulaimon AFP/Archives

It is also from Antiquity that a derogatory vision of menstruation emerged, considering this blood as impure.

A subject not always taboo

Women from the same family or community mainly informed each other.

But they also discussed the rules with the men.

“In medieval and modern times, menstruation is talked about because it is a crucial health topic that concerns the whole family,” says Ms Hanafi.

Women of the nobility, for example, mention their menstruation in their correspondence with their uncle or their father.

The rules become taboo in the 19th century, with the advent of the bourgeoisie, which erects new social models, according to the historian.

Modesty imposes itself as a feminine virtue.

"In this movement, we take away from women's gaze everything relating to the body and sexuality, which will prevent them from being informed on these subjects and from discussing them", specifies Nahema Hanafi.

A woman sews a sanitary napkin by machine in May 2019 in India AAMIR QURESHI AFP

Flow or linens

Throughout history, women have mainly worn skirts or dresses.

The peasant women let the blood flow against the body.

The women of the bourgeoisie or the nobility used cloths to collect it, held in place with knots or hooks, in the absence of panties.

It should be noted that women had fewer menstrual cycles than they do now, mainly due to more pregnancies.

Manufacture of sanitary napkins in a workshop in Bombay in April 2018 in India INDRANIL MUKHERJEE AFP / Archives

The average age of the onset of the first period was also later: close to 16 years around 1750, against 12.6 years today, according to the National Institute of Demographic Studies.

Success of pads and tampons

The first menstrual products appeared towards the end of the 19th century, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom.

These ancestors of towels were "rough, wide and difficult to wear because they fastened with an elastic waistband and ties", describes Sharra Vostral, professor of History at Purdue University, in the United States.

Towels spread from the 1920s, supported by advertisements, in a context of growing consumption.

Tampons do the same from the 1930s.

Towels spread from the 1920s, supported by advertisements, in a context of growing consumption.

Tampons do the same from the 1930s LOIC VENANCE AFP/Archives

Women were considered fragile during their periods and "these products allowed them to act as if they were not having their period, to overcome the associated prejudices" and to continue their professional or leisure activities, underlines Ms. Vostral.

The menstrual cup also appeared in the 1930s but only became more widespread in the 2000s.

Goodbye blue blood?

Washable pads, sponges and period panties: women have had new options for their period days for a few years.

"It took a very long time to offer periodical products to meet the needs and comfort of women", notes Elise Thiébaut, author of "This is my blood" (La Découverte, 2017).

At the same time, the subject of rules is emerging in the public debate.

On social networks, accounts like "Coup de sang" inform young people, and associations, such as Elementary rules, fight against menstrual precariousness.

And ads now depict period blood as red liquid instead of blue.

Models of menstrual cups and sanitary tampons in a London museum, in November 2019 Isabel INFANTES AFP / Archives

The sign of the end of the taboo?

“Speech has been released in an exceptional way over the past five years, but it is in certain circles, certain generations, certain countries”, nuance Elise Thiébaut.

© 2022 AFP