How Women Dealt With Their Periods Throughout History
How Women Dealt With Their Periods Throughout History
It may be difficult to envision how women in the past would have managed their periods. Because of today's modern conveniences many women have a great many number of options to handle our periods. Actually, we have it so great, that compared to women in the past, you may find it difficult to accept exactly how far we've come even since as recently as the 19th century.
Product inventions and even social progress have all made managing our period normal, safe and gradually more socially acceptable for many of us in the 21st century. Yet, have you ever wondered how women managed their periods before the 19th century? There were different theories and sayings about periods. It was thought, in some cultures, that ladies bled to cool their crazy natures and emotions. Some ridiculous myths are still thought of as true today. For instance, some people in India the presence of menstruating women around animals, especially cows, infertile. In some parts of East Africa some say they dry out crops. There are many more myths around the world that have persisted for centuries. With these myths that we can now see are ridiculous it can be hard to imagine how women would have have handled their periods in the past.
Ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks
It is said that Egyptian women utilized mellowed papyrus for tampons. In that same time, across the Mediterranean, Greeks fixed their tampons out of buildup wrapped around little bits of wood. On the other hand, their Roman neighbors wore pads and tampons made of delicate fleece or wool.
Medieval Europe
Medieval Europeans burned toads to lessen the flow. Yes, you read that right. They discovered a frog, that when burned in a pot, helped to reduce their flow. They would do so by wearing the powder or ash in a pocket or a pouch close to the vagina.
Jewish Societies
Jewish societies amid the B.C. time obliged women to be physically isolated from men for the span of their periods. These women were also considered impure. Moreover, anything a woman sat on, laid on or even touched while on her monthly bleeding was also considered dirty and impure. A woman couldn't even hand an object to her husband, unless the object was re-honored by a rabbi.
Europe in the 1800s
Let’s move to Germany and England in the 1800s. Some women of the time wore handmade pads, however, most didn't. Truth be told, hand made pads were a luxury that rich women were accustomed to while rural women and ladies of lower classes were left to simply bleed into their apparel.
America in the 1900s
American women made handmade pads for their periods with retentive cotton material used for child diapers. Ladies stuck these pads to their underwear or muslin belts. Bloomers and sanitary aprons became accessible via mail order.
Appearance of Disposable Pads and Kotex
In World War I, French medical female nurses and caretakers understood that the cellulose wraps used for injured troopers absorb blood much better to anything plain cotton, and they began utilizing the bandages during the days of their periods. To the alleviation of a huge number of ladies, Kotex disposable pads hit store shelves.
Today’s Modern Time
Today women have a great many number of options from tampons with plastic or cardboard applicators, to menstrual cups and sanitary pads of varying thickness and even period panties. Although the products we have access to are good quality pads and can accommodate each conceivable flow and underwear style, the basic styles and design have stayed relatively unaltered for the last 45 years.
Despite this fact, we can't resist the urge to wonder how women will manage their periods in the future and how they'll reflect on how our societies dealt with periods.
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