The Tale of the Tampon

Every month or so, most of us deem it perfectly fitting and proper to stuff a wad of cotton up our vaginas to absorb menstrual blood. We don’t think twice about it. But if we did pause, just for a minute, to consider our behavior—well, we might wonder where this ritual came from. When did tampons become a thing?

As it turns out, the ancients were all over tampons. The oldest printed medical document, Papyrus Ebers, mentions Egyptian women using soft papyrus tampons in the 15th century B.C. Women in ancient Rome used wool tampons. Women in ancient Japan fashioned tampons out of paper and changed them out 10 to 12 times a day. Traditional Hawaiian women used the furry part of a hapu'u fern to absorb menstrual flow—the au natural approach.

In the United States, women were doing it DIY with tampons long before they were commercially available. Some women cut out strips of surgical cotton and rolled them up tightly; others bought natural sea sponges at cosmetics or art supply stores and trimmed them into reusable tampons (gotta love those menstrual crafts!). But not every woman could pull this off. Most who dared were actresses, athletes, or prostitutes—dubious professions, according to women of the more ‘respectable’ variety. More conventional women wore sanitary pads held in place by a belt. Not. Comfy.

By the late 1920s and early 1930s, commercial tampons were starting to become available. But it was the advent of the applicator that transformed the tampon into the device we know today. Dr. Earle Haas was the man with the clever applicator idea, which he patented in 1933 then trademarked under the brand name Tampax. Unfortunately, Haas could not get people interested in his invention, so he sold the concept to an ambitious German immigrant named Gertrude Tenderich. Tenderich made the very first Tampax tampons in her home with a sewing machine.

Once Tampax was on the market, church groups and gynecologists expressed reservations about the product’s safety. But over time, tampons became more and more accepted. Their popularity skyrocketed during World War II when women started taking on men’s jobs in factories, then again in 1972 when tampons started to be advertised on television.

Today, approximately 70% of women of menstruating age use tampons, and ~56% of women who responded to a Glow Community poll said they couldn’t cope without them. A woman who is an active tampon user can be expected to use as many as 11,400 tampons in her lifetime! Lots. Of. Tampons. And lots of lifetimes—from the ancient Egyptians through us 21st century souls—that have been convenienced and improved by this most handy dandy of devices.