As it was once without pads?

In ancient Egypt she used softened papyrus, ancient Rome wool or cloth, as in Greece (it is said that the Hypatia Mathematics, 370-415, threw the unwanted suitor Idomeneo a cloth wrung out of her menstrual blood). In that same period they were manufactured rudimentary swabs of gauze wrapped around wood, sponge or moss.

In the countryside they were also used sheep skins, boiled after use. Only at the end of 1800 the Johnson & Johnson invented the disposable, called "Lister's towel", but women felt embarrassed to buy them.

During World War II the cellulose pads used by French nurses to treat wounds were also used for the cycle, because more absorbent. In the '20s came the disposable of Kotex and in 1929 Dr. Earle Haas created the Tampax, internal buffer with a wire for removal. Two years later, he patented it under the name of "accessory catamenial", from the greek kataménios (monthly).

The product was then registered as Tampax and launched in 1936 by Gertrude Tendrich, German-born entrepreneur who bought the trademark and patent and founded Tampax company (since 1997 of Procter & Gamble property).

BUT WHAT ARE DEPENDENT UPON THE MENSTRUAL. With menstruation the female body excretes the unfertilized egg and the lining prepared to welcome it: this process occurs on average every 28 days, and approximately 450-500 times during the life of a woman. The menstrual cycle is regulated by hormones produced by the pituitary and ovaries. The pituitary sets in motion the process producing the gonadostimoline, hormones that are sent to the ovaries and that are able to stimulate both the maturation and the production of estrogen.

PREPARE THE NEST. Estrogen produced by the ovaries, prepare the uterus to receive the fertilized egg: the walls begin to thicken, the veins and arteries dilate to allow more blood flow. When the uterus is ready, the egg is released from the ovary to the uterus and starts. What remains of the follicle that contained it (corpus luteum) starts producing progesterone, the hormone that serves to keep the swelling of the uterine wall. If the egg during the descent, it meets sperm and therefore pregnancy does not begin, the corpus luteum regresses and stops producing progesterone. Without progesterone, the lining of the uterus which had formed begins to flake and is ejected in the form of blood.