Tampons, Pads, Sponges

From Encyclopedia of Sex and Sexuality

During menstruation, women need to wear some form of absorbent material to collect their menstrual flow. Women in different cultures have handled their menstrual flow in many ways. From the earliest times, women have made tampons and pads from available materials, often washing and reusing special cloths or rags. In America today most women wear tampons or pads (pads are also referred to as sanitary napkins). A few women use menstrual sponges.

Commercially sold tampons are made from soft pieces of cotton compressed into the size and shape of a long lipstick tube. A tampon is worn inside the vagina and is inserted by pushing it up and into the vagina with one’s fingers. Some brands of tampons come in a cardboard tube or on a stick. These devices help the woman guide the tampon into place A tampon also has a piece of string attached to one end. This string does not get inserted into the vagina and is used to pull the tampon out for disposal. One important advantage of tampons is that they prevent any external flow of blood. Because they are inside the vagina, they can be worn while swimming or tight-fitting clothes. In the late 1970s an extremely rare but serious disease was associated with tampon use - Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS). The disease occurred when bacteria multiplied in the vagina during use of certain types of tampons. It is important to remember the TSS is extremely rare and appears to be preventable if tampons are not left inside the vagina beyond the recommended period.

Menstrual pads or napkins are made of a soft, absorb material and are shaped and sized to fit inside the bottom of a woman’s panties. They usually attach to the underwear by means of a sticky backing. The first successful disposable sanitary napkin was marketed in 1921. They now come in a variety of thicknesses to handle different levels of menstrual flow - from light to heavy.

Some women have discovered that natural sponges (not artificial cellulose sponges) have many advantages for menstrual use. A sponge is soft and comfortable and when damp it conforms to the to the shape of a woman’s vagina, eliminating the irritation of dryness common with tampons during a light flow. A sponge is also reusable. A woman can cut one to size with a pair of scissors, dampen it with water, and insert it gently into her vagina with her fingers. When she senses it is full, she can then remove it with her fingers, rinse it out in cool water, and reinsert it. Nevertheless, anyone contemplating the use of a sponge should consider that the United States Food and Drug Administration does not approve of them for menstrual use. Although they were used by some women in the 1980s, they are rarely encountered today.