Stroke victim: Can she buy stick tampons today?
Hi,
I had a stroke but still have periods. I lost part of my mobility. I remember using the Kotex stick tampons [see them] and I think they would give me the ability to insert them. The plastic applicator requires too much bending. Are there any stick tampons still commercially available? I know Kotex no longer makes them. Does anyone else?
Thanks
She later added,
I had to use a "politically-correct" tall toilet tonight and could only insert the tampon halfway and had to go home immediately. I'm under 5 feet tall and my feet dangle on those toilets. It's like being a 50-year-old kindergartner.
Thanks again for your help.
Happy holidays!
[If anyone can help, I'll forward the information to the writer. E-mail me.]
Anyone heard of Finesse?
We are interested in obtaining a product made in England in the 1970s called Finesse - an ultrathin pad with super absorbent material, manufactured by Lever (or Lever Brothers, or Unilever, not sure what it was called then).
Can you help?? Or do you know another source to obtain archival products?
With gratitude for any help you can offer,
Carol Gell
Johnson & Johnson
(U.S.A.) 908-874-1096
Palm Pilot menstrual tracker and predictor
We thought visitors to your site would be interested in knowing about the new health management tool: pPatrol(tm), the menstrual tracker and predictor for handhelds using the Palm operating system.
pPatrol(tm) also reminds a woman to perform monthly breast self-examinations based on her own data. We are very proud of how pPatrol(tm) uses technology to support breast cancer prevention.
pPatrol(tm) soon be available for download for desktop computer use, too.
pPatrol(tm) was recently featured in Self, Cosmopolitan, Bride's, and Glamour magazines.
http://www.ppatrol.com/demo/pPatrolDemo.zip is a demo version of pPatrol(tm) and instructions for its use. The demo is the same as the fully licensed product, but has a short window of usability. Please visit our site, http://www.ppatrol.com, where you can see sample screen shots of this product, or click on http://www.ppatrol.com/images/ppatrol.gif.
I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Eve Ellis
President
Aladdin Communications, LLC
45 Rockefeller Plaza 20th Flr.
New York City, NY 10111-0100
p.212-332-5060
f.212-580-3194
eve@ppatrol.com
http://www.aladdincommunications.com
http://www.ppatrol.com
And more menstrual software
Hello,
What I could not find in the museum was software. A surprising number of women nowadays use trackers, calendars, alert programs, etc
Webvisia (www.webvisia.com) have published LaFemme for Palm and PC - a menstrual cycle tracker, which keeps records, predicts future events, allows export to MS Excel and so on - a nice program to fill a gap in your museum.
Please feel free to contact me if interested (this is not a commercial offer).
Thanks and regards,
A German corrects my translation
Dear Mum,
As I was surfing through your very interesting site, I saw you had a doubt in one of your translations from a German ad. (http://www.mum.org/collection.htm) The city mentioned is Heidenheim a. Br., which means "an der Brenz." [I had guessed that it meant "an der Brücke," "at the bridge."] Since I live near that city I just wanted to inform you about that small detail. I was very fond of all the information you have on your site. Thank you for your effort.
Your sincerely
Tampons, pennies and contraception in the past
Would you consider adding a history of contraception to your museum? [Yes!] It seems so logical, since the ancient tampons were used also for contraception. [The museum has copies of inscriptions from ancient Egypt - see it -, ancient Greek and medieval Hebrew about using tampons as contraceptives.] I also read somewhere years ago that in the Old West, women used pennies as diaphragms - pennies were much bigger back then!"
It must have been the old "large cents" or perhaps the English penny. I can't imagine how they would have worked, as they aren't shaped to cover the cervix. [It could be the reaction of the metal with the acidic vaginal fluid, producing inflammation that impedes the sperms' progress - if it indeed worked at all.] The rubber diaphragm works mostly because it is filled with spermicidal gel that kills any sperms that find their way around the lip, and helps goo it in place.
The Babylonian Talmud treats the permissibility of using tampons made of wool to prevent conception. They were permitted for married girls who were too young for safe pregnancy (between the ages of 10 and 11, I think). Wives under 10 were not permitted to use them as pregnancy was thought impossible under age 10, and after age 11 as contraception to avoid procreation was considered immoral and virtually treason against the Hebrew nation. Contraception was permitted only to prevent the death of the female.
If you are interested in putting the Talmudic tampon information on your Web site let me know and I will look the actual references up [Yes!]. My set of the Soncino Talmud is in storage. The references may be searchable from one of the Talmud sites on the Web.
Organization helps endometriosis sufferers
Dear Editor:
While surfing your site, I discovered that we are not listed under your links. Would it be possible to list us?
Endometriosis is a chronic disease that affects approximately 89 million women worldwide, 5.5 million of them in North America. It has been surgically diagnosed in girls as young as eight, and women in their 80s.
Endometriosis is a leading cause of infertility, pelvic pain, and hysterectomy. At present, there is treatment but no cure for this disease, but treatment is available. In addition, women with endo are more likely to develop some autoimmune diseases and certain cancers.
The Endometriosis Association is a non-profit self-help organization dedicated to offering support and help to those affected by endo, educating the public and medical community about the disease, and funding and promoting research related to endometriosis.
We are the oldest endo organization (founded in 1980) and we now have groups and members in 66 countries. We offer brochures in 27 languages, and are proud of our Web site, including the new Web pages in Spanish. We've written two books on endo, and are at work on a third.
To link to us, go to www.endo-online.org.
I appreciate your help in this matter, and I hope this information provides you with everything you need. If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes for a happy, healthy and safe new year. Thank you for all you do for women and girls with endo!
Sincerely,
Brenda W. Quinn
Education and Outreach Coordinator
Endometriosis Association
International Headquarters
8585 N. 76th Place
Milwaukee, WI 53223
1-800-992-3636 (North America)
414-355-2200
Fax: 414-355-6065
http://www.KillerCramps.org
Lily the Pink
Extraordinary Web site! (I like the art too [see the Art of Menstruation series].)
I remember "Lily the Pink," the song, from being a little girl in the '70s and stumbled across your site trying to discover where I can buy a copy on CD. I had no idea of the background, just remember finding the song catchy and funny. Thanks for printing the words. [Read the words and their connection to a famous American woman who made patent medicine.]
Eclipse of the Moon and menstruation
Hello !!
Could you please direct me to a specific Web site that has information on Lunception and the Moon vs my cycle?
Thank you
[The writer later sent me this site: http://redmoonrising.homestead.com/]
Pads and tampons for boxers!
Harry,
Great site, and I am not making up the subject line: boxing trainers use sanitary pads to protect injured knuckles. Thus my finding you - I was out fact-checking myself (I do sports research), and a good thing, too, as I had the introduction of Tampax as 1937 rather than 1936. My new entry, in case you were wondering: "1936: The Tampax Company introduces tampons with applicators. German bandage makers had begun marketing commercial menstrual pads during the 1890s, but these did not become common in North America until Kimberly-Clark introduced its inexpensive wood-fiber Kotex brand in 1921. Tampons without applicators (and in some cases, strings) appeared during the late 1920s, but manufacturers evidently thought that the only market was showgirls and athletes, and as a result there was originally little commercial interest in the plug-like devices. Women were not the only beneficiaries of these developments, however, as by the mid-1930s, boxing trainers had begun using them to protect the hands of boxers suffering from bruised or arthritic knuckles. This is ironic, since thousands of Chinese and Japanese boxers were simultaneously pounding their fists into sand, rocks, and boards in an effort to achieve those same bruised knuckles." If there is something incorrect there, please let me know and I'll fix it.
Enclosed as way of thanks is some additional grist for your mill. If you already have it someplace that I didn't see, feel free to chuck it. Female boxers have begun appearing in tampon commercials. Some feminists seem offended: http://www.libertocracy.com/Transfer/Articles/culture/entertainment/commercials.htm. The tennis set seems to agree with this viewpoint. I haven't read the article, but http://www.thompsonbooks.com/55077081.html lists an article by Robin Finn called "Women's Tennis Slammed over Rejecting Tampax Sponsorship." There is a little on the topic at http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010903/cover3.html. Women's basketball doesn't seem to be so worried about appearances: http://uclabruins.fansonly.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/111599aaa.html
In your discussion of marketing, it seems that Tampax Woodstock ad drew some flak. For its use in a university marketing discussion, see http://www.mhhe.com/catalogs/irwin/marketing/current_events/1999/0599.mhtml
And, finally, another poem for you:
http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmarticleid=5030
QUOTE: "Drapery Factory, Gulfport, Mississippi, 1956," where "the colored women filed out slowly / to have their purses checked, / the insides laid open and exposed / by the boss's hand." With perfect pitch and humor, the poet captures a grandmother's subtle revenge in "the soiled Kotex / she saved, stuffed into a bag / in her purse, and Adam's look / on one white man's face, his hand / deep in knowledge." CLOSE QUOTE
Surf's up!
Joe
http://ejmas.com
He later added:
The entry is part of my online chronology, http://ejmas.com/kronos/index.html. Portions of the chronology have been published in Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Thomas A. Green (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001). So, for those who can't trust anything they find on the Internet, well, then spend the money and buy the book.
"InYo," at http://ejmas.com/jalt/jaltframe.htm, is the portion of the EJMAS Web site that is most likely to contain articles of interest to female readers without particular interest in sport, as that's where one finds articles on female boxing, wrestling, judo, etc. Female involvement in such sports is another relatively taboo topic; for a lot of parents, the idea of the daughter or significant other as tennis player is okay, but the idea of the daughter or significant other as professional wrestler is not.
***
It occurs to me that a history female athletic attire might answer some of your questions about undergarments. You might also get discussions in physical fitness journals of the day. Luther Gulick and the boys were still swimming nude at the YMCA (Baden-Powell of the Boy Scouts was allegedly a pedophile), but you can't allow that once you have Camp Fire Girls. (Gulick was involved in that, too.)
Age at menarche in Britain
Hi,
I've really been enjoying reading your site which I came across quite recently. My boyfriend keeps saying "You're still reading that?" incredulously, before being drawn into whichever page I'm looking at at the time!
With regards to the average age at menarche, I found this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1310000/1310280.stm ) story at the BBC news site, which was based on an article published in the British Medical Journal (see article here: http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7294/1095? and tables/data here: http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7294/1095/DC1 ).
The basic conclusions are that the age at menarche in British girls has fallen very slightly (by less than six months) over the last 20-30 years. It does make the point though that almost 1/8th of girls are still at primary school when they get their first period, and that more should be done to provide for them (in terms of education and dispensers in the toilets, etc).
While I was at the BBC site, I also stumbled over this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1170000/1170088.stm about 'space age panty-liners'!
Thanks again for providing such a fascinating site,
[See a chart on this site about age at menarche.]
SHE talks about menstruation
I just stumbled onto your site and am quite fascinated. Haven't read it all yet but I will. [Good luck!]
This is a subject that women always discuss with each other, in detail that men would be terrified to hear. I'm not suggesting that you add a section of "menstrual stories" (though a compendium of "when I started" stories might be interesting), just sharing this bit of info with you.
I just read some of the letters on your site and am surprised to see folks say that no one talks about menstruation! I've been doing it for over 30 years now, so I guess any reticence I had on the subject is long gone. (I'm only 41.) I think the fact that girls do something this serious, so related to birth/death, this early in their lives surely has an effect on us. [I'm always impressed with how simple the male - I'm a male - experience is; women have a more complex and difficult path, sexually speaking.]
I also learned a lot from your site. I had no idea that suspenders had been used to hold pads! My god! And we complained about belts!
You discussion of your family (particularly the fact that you don't display pictures) and how you came to start the museum was very interesting. I think it's cool that you've done this. And as far as I can see, I doesn't make any difference at all what gender you are.
Good luck,
They like this site!
I stumbled onto your menstruation Web site quite by accident, and I must say I'm delighted that there is such a thing! Your site provided me with the first glimpse I've ever had of sanitary "belts" [see one in a Swedish ad and an American one from the 1940s], though my mom had tried to explain them to me once. How horrible! Though I actually think these belts were the first true "thongs!!!"
I'm a graphic artist myself. Might I ask what kind of graphics the government has you do? [You name it. See some of my independent art work and some work for the government.] Do they actually allow creativity (insert tongue in cheek)? [Sometimes, yes.]
Really, great site!
What a great and informative site you have.
Thank you!
Peace.
I stumbled across your museum while looking for an article on women's health - that was three or so hours ago . . . .I must say that I am truly impressed and quite shocked by what I never knew! (Sponges and cups and belts! Oh, my!) And in the throes of the humor pages, I wish to pass on a story that my family periodically embarrasses my sister with:
[Turn to the humor page!]
Luck and wishes!
From the woman who sent the most beautiful picture of a cat I've seen
Hi, Harry,
Mummy Christmas and a Harry New Year,
***** (and Spooky)
THE 12 DAYS OF "CATMAS":
On the twelve days of "Catmas" my humans gave to me
Twelve human hugs and kisses
(Oh, quit it, you're embarrassing me!)
Eleven minutes of scratching
(Oh, yeah, and it makes a nice cloud of flying fur!)
Ten balls of twine
(Hey, are you trying to strangle me?)
Nine humans dancing
(Obviously because of the hairballs I left next to the bed.)
Eight hairball toys
(Wow, pretty authentic looking!)
Seven pet food covers
(Nice, but you know I always eat the whole can at one time.)
Six floppy stuffed Beanie Dalmatians
(Ugh! Do you think I'll get the other 95?)
Five small lattice balls
(Gee, I love the noise they make on the floor at 3 a.m.!)
Four furry mice
(Hey, They're fake! How about a real one once in a while!)
Three nuggets of Pounce
(Only three? Are you savin' the rest for next year?)
Two catnip toys
(Hehe! I bet I can wreck these in 60 seconds or less.)
A carpeted cheesy home-made cat tree
(Well, okay, but I'm not giving up sleeping on your bed.)
What do you think your cat(s) would say?
(Source unknown)
Book about menstruation published in Spain
The Spanish journalist who contributed some words for menstruation to this site last year and wrote about this museum (MUM) in the Madrid newspaper "El País" just co-authored with her daughter a book about menstruation (cover at left).
She writes, in part,
Dear Harry Finley,
As I told you, my daughter (Clara de Cominges) and I have written a book (called "El tabú") about menstruation, which is the first one to be published in Spain about that subject. The book - it talks about the MUM - is coming out at the end of March and I just said to the publisher, Editorial Planeta, to contact you and send you some pages from it and the cover as well. I'm sure that it will be interesting to you to have some information about the book that I hope has enough sense of humour to be understood anywhere. Thank you for your interest and help.
If you need anything else, please let me know.
Best wishes,
Margarita Rivière
Belen Lopez, the editor of nonfiction at Planeta, adds that "Margarita, more than 50 years old, and Clara, 20, expose their own experiences about menstruation with a sensational sense of humour." (Later this month more information will appear on the publisher's site, in Spanish.)
My guess is that Spaniards will regard the cover as risqué, as many Americans would. And the book, too. But, let's celebrate!
Two weeks ago I mentioned that Procter & Gamble was trying to change attitudes in the Spanish-speaking Americas to get more women to use tampons, specifically Tampax - a hard sell.
Compare this cover with the box cover for the Canadian television video about menstruation, Under Wraps, and the second The Curse.
An American network is now developing a program about menstruation for a popular cable channel; some folks from the network visited me recently to borrow material.
And this museum lent historical tampons and ads for a television program in Spain last year.
Now, if I could only read Spanish! (I'm a former German teacher.)
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility and is linked to diabetes.
