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

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  (#6) 4th-Century Indian Woman Were Using Rock Salt, Honey, And Ground Seeds

  This one comes from the 12th-century text Koka Shastra, which recommended using oil and rock salt as a vaginal obstruction – this was also recommended as a form of contraception. Ancient Indians also used honey and ghee as a means of obstruction, and they constructed tampons out of ground ajowan seeds which, like ghee, is a popular ingredient in Indian cooking. 
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  (#11) American Women In The 1920s Wore Diapers

  Until about the mid-1920s, a lot of American women were wearing adult woman-sized diapers, or "outing flannels," which they had to wash and reuse. Considering that 1920s fashion was all about skirt hems getting higher and doing the Charleston all over the place, you can imagine this must have been a major problem for those thoroughly modern menstruating women.
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  (#5) 1970s Women Used Big Pad Stirrups

  If you've ever seen the movie Slums of Beverly Hills, a '70s-set Natasha Lyonne-starring coming-of-age flick, you'll be familiar with what these sanitary belt monstrosities looked like. Resembling a proto-strap on with none of the fun, this bulky-looking belt could not have been conducive to any physical activities. And they were exactly what they sound like: pads hooked to large stirrups attached to a belt. However, what they may have lacked in wearability and comfort, they more than made up for in longevity. Sanitary belts were in wide usage from the late 1800s until the 1970s. 
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  (#12) Indonesian Women Used Vegetable Fiber

  That's one way to get your five fruits and vegetables a day... Historians have said that Indonesian women were using tampons made out of vegetable fiber for centuries. You might be trying to wrap your mind around that as the most prevalent example of fiber most people can think of is probably a fiber bar of some kind. But people on the Internet are still coming up with excellent ways to use leftover green juice pulp, so maybe a DIY green juice tampon will be the next thing to take the wellness blogs by storm?
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  (#9) Japanese Women Of Yore Used Paper

  According to a number of scholars and historians, women living in Ancient Japan would go through between eight and 12 paper tampons a day. They held these papery devices in place with bandages, called "kama," which translates to "pony."
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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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