Before disposable pads hit store shelves in the 1890s, women managed their periods with whatever absorbent materials were available, from plant fibers and moss to repurposed household rags. The specific methods varied by era and region, but resourcefulness was the constant thread across thousands of years of menstrual history.
Ancient Materials: Papyrus, Wool, and Cloth
In ancient Egypt, women softened papyrus, a grass-like plant, and used it to absorb menstrual blood, functioning something like an early tampon. In Rome, both men and women wore a loincloth called a subligaculum, and women likely placed small pieces of cloth inside theirs during menstruation to catch the flow. Roman women also applied tight wrappings called ligatures to the groin during heavy bleeding in an attempt to slow blood loss throughout the body.
How Medieval Women Managed Their Periods
The popular image of medieval women “free bleeding” into their clothes isn’t quite right, though the reality was far from comfortable. Women wore long linen shifts as undergarments, and these served as a first line of defense by absorbing sweat and other bodily fluids. On top of that base layer, many women used “clouts,” pieces of fabric (often rags or cast-off household cloth) that were pinned or fastened in place. Some clouts were folded like a diaper and held with pins or a waist belt. Others were stuffed with wool, moss, or additional linen scraps to boost absorbency.
It’s worth noting that women did not wear underwear in the modern sense until the 1800s. Victorian-era concerns about modesty drove the fashion shift toward wearing dedicated undergarments beneath the shift and corset. Before that, the shift itself, combined with rags and natural materials, was the system.
Natural materials filled in the gaps, literally. Moss and grass were common choices, and for good reason. Sphagnum moss, used by Indigenous Anishinaabeg communities in North America for infant care and sanitary hygiene, can hold up to 25 times its weight in water and has natural antiseptic properties. Women across many cultures independently discovered the same thing: moss worked remarkably well.
Washing and Reusing Rags
The term “on the rag” has real historical roots. Women washed, dried, and reused their menstrual cloths cycle after cycle, typically keeping multiple sets in rotation. Pre-industrial laundering methods were surprisingly effective at removing blood stains. The key was soaking in cold water first (never hot, which sets blood proteins into fabric). Washerwomen used labor-intensive scrubbing techniques along with soap and lye. For undyed cloth, drying in direct sunlight helped bleach out any remaining discoloration.
This was unpleasant, time-consuming work, but it was a well-understood part of domestic life for centuries.
The 19th Century: Protective Clothing and Early Products
The 1800s brought the first purpose-built menstrual products to market. Manufacturers developed special belts, pads, and a garment called the “sanitary apron,” which women wore over their buttocks to prevent leakage onto chairs and clothing when sitting. These weren’t the thin, adhesive pads we know today. They were bulky, belt-attached contraptions, but they represented a shift from improvised household rags to products designed specifically for periods.
In 1896, Johnson & Johnson released what was likely the first commercially available disposable pad: Lister’s Towels, also marketed as “Sanitary Napkins for Ladies.” They were made from cotton and gauze. But the product flopped. Women were too embarrassed to ask for them at the pharmacy counter, and the stigma around menstruation made advertising nearly impossible.
World War I Changed Everything
The real turning point came from battlefield hospitals. During World War I, military nurses discovered that Cellucotton, a wood-pulp surgical dressing developed to replace scarce cotton supplies, absorbed blood far better than anything they had been using for their own periods. With uncertain laundry facilities, frequent travel, and a steady supply of manufactured dressings, nurses began repurposing surgical bandages as disposable menstrual pads.
After the war ended, Kimberly-Clark found itself sitting on a surplus of Cellucotton with no more wounds to dress. In the early 1920s, the company repackaged the material as Kotex, the first widely marketed disposable menstrual pad. Kotex became one of the first brands to advertise sanitary products in women’s magazines and newspapers, and it publicly credited wartime nursing sisters with the idea. The combination of a superior material, mass manufacturing, and a culture slowly becoming more open about women’s health created the conditions for disposable pads to finally catch on.
Why the Shift Took So Long
Commercial pads existed for over two decades before most women actually used them. Cost was one barrier: disposable products were a recurring expense that homemade rags didn’t require. Shame was another. Buying menstrual supplies meant acknowledging menstruation in public, something most women had been trained their entire lives to avoid. Early retailers solved part of the problem by placing Kotex boxes on store counters with a coin dish, so women could pay and leave without speaking to anyone.
Even after disposable pads became widely available, many women continued using cloth through the mid-20th century, particularly in rural areas and lower-income households. The adhesive-strip pad that sticks directly to underwear didn’t arrive until the 1970s, finally eliminating the belts and pins that had been part of the system since medieval clouts. That simple design change, more than any other single innovation, is what made modern period management feel routine rather than engineered.