Pads and tampons

On average, each woman uses about ten to twelve pads or tampons per cycle writes Dr Marga Boyani

In a fantasy world where men menstruate, there would be bragging rights for men about ‘how much and for how long’. Champion sportsmen would be used to brand tampons with their names. Phrases like ‘he is a three-pad man’ would be common. There would also be time off from work for ‘that time of the month’. The reality, of course, is different.

Women are the ones who get a visit from ‘Aunty Flow’ every month. Until about a century ago, women ‘on it’ had to be creative. Girls from the past like the ancient Egyptians made tampons from softened papyrus leaves while the Greeks used lint wrapped around wood for a tampon. Others used wool, paper, rolls of grass, sea sponges, animal pelts, mosses and seaweed. Cloth then became an option and in the 19th century, women in the west owned a ‘rag bag’ used to stash pieces of cloth that were used like pads, which you soaked, washed, and re-used. This is how the term ‘on the rag’ came to be.

Once mass manufacturing of textiles and garments became possible, manufactured cloth pads and underwear with built in sanitary pads became available and these evolved around the time of World War 1 to disposable pads from gauze, cheesecloth, and surgical cotton. Women would safety pin them to their underwear or held them in place with a ‘sanitary belt’ that went around the waist.

Lighter flow

Today, sanitary pads are made of layers of cotton or other absorbable material with or without an absorbent gel. Others have ‘wings’ that fold over the edges of your underwear to better hold the pad in place and prevent leakage. They come in varying thicknesses for heavier or lighter flow.

Almost all pads have a sticky strip on the bottom that helps them to adhere to your underwear. Pads are easy to use and you don’t need to remind yourself to change them.

The tampon has been used for years but the first commercially produced tampons were invented in the 1930s but women were afraid that they would lose their virginity or that the tampon could just pop out when they are walking! Once these myths were dispelled, tampons became popular.

The modern tampon is made of cotton or synthetic fibre compressed into a tiny tubular shape and it absorbs blood from inside the vagina. Tampons also come in different sizes. They are convenient because one can swim in them, they are easy to store in a purse or pocket and can’t be felt because they are inside the body.

On average, each woman uses about ten to twelve pads or tampons per cycle. The range of products on the market can be daunting because there is super, regular, mini, slender, with wings, without wings, deodorised, maxi, and mini… What suits your lifestyle and pocket?