1890s: German and American women are able to buy disposable pads, but a lack of advertising kills the American product, called Lister’s Towel. Made by Johnson & Johnson, it was named for a British doctor who pushed for antiseptic surgery.
1914: Virtually all women are using cloth pads. Sears, Roebuck and Co. also offers an apron and pad holder made of cloth-covered rubber, suitable for traveling.
1921: Kotex–a word created by Kimberly-Clark based on its pad’s “CO-tton-like TEXture”–appears as the first widely sold disposable pad. It is made of cellulose, or wood pulp, and originates as a bandage for soldiers in World War I. American nurses in France conscript it as a menstrual pad and like it.
Nevertheless, the new belted pad sells well only after women are given the choice of putting money into a container and taking a box from a stack on the counter without speaking to a clerk.
1930s: Tampons such as Wix and Fax are available commercially, but do not include an applicator.
1933: Dr. Earle Haas of Denver designs an applicator tampon but can’t find anyone interested in his invention. He sells the patent and trademark to Denver businesswoman Gertrude Tenderich for $32,000. She establishes the Tampax company and serves as its first president.
1936: Tampax tampon hits the market, but isn’t all that popular initially. It will eventually corner 55 percent of an $8 billion industry worldwide.
1937: Former actress and singer Leona Chalmer patents what is possibly the first menstrual cup, called the Tassette. It doesn’t quite capture the consumer’s imagination, however.
1957: Chalmer joins with businessman Robert Oreck in a second attempt to sell the Tassette to consumers.
1961: Oreck buys a 40-foot-by-30-foot billboard in Times Square to advertise Tassette, saying only that it is “not a tampon, not a napkin!” The ad is considered the first in Times Square to be devoted to a feminine hygiene product.
1963: After never generating a profit, the Tassette disappears from the market.
1970s: Self-adhesive pads are introduced, virtually destroying the belted pad industry.
1982: Cathy Rigby’s pitch for Stayfree Pads has her flipping across American televisions and magazines. Fellow Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton follows with her own Tampax ads in 1986.
1989: Fresh ‘n’ Fit Padettes, a pad-tampon hybrid meant for “light days,” is introduced in Tallahassee, Fla., withdrawn and then reintroduced in 1997 as the “inSync Miniform” (available on www.PlanetRx.com)
Sources: The Museum of Menstruation and Women’s Health (www.mum.org); “The Curse” by Karen Houppert (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); Lexis-Nexis.
