The oldest printed medical document, Papyrus Ebers, refers to the use of soft papyrus tampons by Egyptian women in the fifteenth century B.C.
Dr. Earle Haas patented the first modern tampon, Tampax, with the tube-within-a-tube applicator. Gertrude Schulte Tenderich (nee Voss) bought the patent rights to her company trademark Tampax and started as a seller, manufacturer and spokesperson in 1933.
Menstrual pads have been mentioned as early as the 10th century, in the Suda, where Hypatia, who lived in the 4th century AD, was said to have thrown one of her used menstrual rags at an admirer in an attempt to discourage him. Women often used strips of folded old cloth (rags) to catch their menstrual flow, which is why the term "on the rag" is used to refer to menstruation.
Disposable menstrual pads grew from a Ben Franklin invention created to help stop wounded soldiers from bleeding, but appear to have been first commercially available from around 1888 with the Southall's pad.
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