Random Weird Things Women Had To Resort To Before Tampons As We Know Them Existed (12 items)

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  (#2) Nothing; Just Bleeding Out

  That's right – sometimes women had to make do with absolutely nothing. That stuff about the period tent is no joke. In BCE Jewish cultures, women's periods grossed the menfolk out so much that they were deemed impure. So the women were sent out to sit by themselves, far away from the men and anything they might get their menses all over. Because if a woman dared to sit or rest on anything while she was on the rag, that thing was considered impure as well. So off to the period tent with you!

  But fast forward a few centuries, and a lot of women were letting it all bleed out without having to run off to the backyard. The women of 1800s Europe who hadn't fashioned their own pads were totally cool with letting their menses run all over their clothes.
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  (#7) Menstrual Cups Were Around Way Before Moon Cups

  You'd be totally forgiven for thinking the menstrual cup was this new, revolutionary product that was changing the way women deal with their periods and the tampon tax and the environment all at once. But, as it turns out, the OG menstrual cup, AKA "catamenial sacks," were invented in 1937 by an American actress called Leona Chalmers. She made them from latex rubber and patented the design, but then World War II came around, resulting in a latex rubber shortage and putting a damper on her menstrual cup dreams. Less than a century later, Leona Chalmers's vision has taken flight like the wings of an errant sanitary towel.  
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  (#3) Ancient Greeks Used Wooden Sticks Covered In Lint

  Sure seems like the women of ancient Greece weren't too fussed about yeast infections or UTIs. They were more likely worried about dealing with internal splintering. Thrush is bound to be a walk in the park after that. This period-control tidbit came from the widely referenced Greek physician Hippocrates of Kos (a man some say is the "Father of Medicine") who wrote that women living in the 5th century BCE made their tampons out of lint that they wrapped around a bit of light-weight wood. 
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  (#4) Early Modern English Women Were Literally 'On The Rag'

  If there are any early modern menstrual records, they're few and far between. Which means a lot of scholars that want to examine exactly how ladies coped when their ovaries ranneth over are left to speculate. One such scholar, Dr. Sara Read did a deep dive into this subject and found that a lot of European women in the Middle Ages were using rags, or "clouts" as they might have called them, from which the term "on the rag" was born.  
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  (#8) Medieval Women Wore Burnt Toads' Ashes In Pouches Near Their Nether Regions

  This one has an almost witchy vibe to it – like "[eye] of newt and toe of frog" Shakespeare witchery vibes. According to historian Amy License, who specializes in the lives of medieval, Tudor, and Early Modern women, women with a heavy flow were encouraged to find a toad, burn it in a pot, and then wear the ashes in a little pouch strapped to their crotches. There doesn't seem to be a definitive answer on whether or not this worked.  
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  (#10) Egyptians Occasionally Used Dirt And Honey

  This was less about easing the monthly passing of menstrual blood and more about plugging up an Egyptian woman's discharge. According to some old texts written on another Egyptian moon-time favorite, Papyrus, a woman's menstrual discharge was treated by crushing up earth from the Nile and mixing that in with honey and galena (a natural mineral form of lead) and then wrapping all that up in a wad of linen. For best results, a woman should keep this mixture inserted for four days.

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