I agree

Thank you Dina

You’re costumes are just beautiful! Hope to see your list of venues soon, so that I might be able to visit one or more, in the near future!
Thanks,
Dina from Holland

There is very little information about what was used for a woman’s monthly period written during the Tudor period. However, it is thought that during the 16th century cloths were used during periods – I suppose similar to the ‘Dr Whites’ sanitary pads used when I was a young girl in the early 1970’s.

Menstruation cloths were mentioned in Tudor household accounts as ‘vallopes all of fine hollande clothe’, – I know that ‘wallops’ were rags so the cloths were probably use as sanitary towels.
I read somewhere that Elizabethan household accounts listed three ‘gyrdelles of blak Jeane silk made on the fingers garnished with buckelles hookes & eyes whipped over with silk’ – an early type of sanitary belt in all probability – I suppose they were similar to the pink belts I remember wearing with ‘Dr Whites’ sanitary pads to keep them in place years ago.

A pad of linen fabric used by Tudor women seems possible, but when filled with linen wadding would make a pad which would be difficult to wash and dry especially in the winter. Although we don’t have real proof it is very possible that women used napkins stuffed with moss as sanitary pads. Like a fine sponge moss can absorb a large amount of liquid – it can also be squeezed out and reused. It is thought that sphagnum moss would absorb the blood in until fully soaked and absorb the blood flow from all directions.

Home made tampons made of fine linen, silk or wool were also made for internal use and we can suppose a string was also attached for their removal. Again sphagnum moss may have been used
As with all things necessity is the mother of invention!

I have also read that during the middle ages there was a “popular belief was that sex with a menstruating woman would kill or mutilate the semen and produce horribly deformed offspring or children with red hair or leprosy. Just the gaze of an old woman who still had her periods was thought to be poisonous- the vapours being emitted from her eyes”.

I am so glad that we live in an enlightened age!

Regards, Dina