h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

except of course in the 70% of their adult life that they were pregnant.

Is anyone else old enuf to remember the old type that were just cotton wool in a sort of net cover with a loop at either end, that you attached to a belt with hooks fore and aft?
Imagine trying not to let those twist.

They used to make us stand throughout the whole assembly and for eight days every month I would faint after about 10 minutes and have to be taken out. Somehow it never seemed to occur to them to let me stay out in the first place.

I remember sanitary belts but I have to say that my Mum (who can be a bit scary at times - just as IanG!) wouldn't hear of me using sanitary towels. When I started my periods she went out, bought some tampons and the rest is gynae history!

Lucky you! I was given some 'bricks' and told not to try tampons until I'd had a baby!

oops, that wasn't very clever of me! The above post was from me.

Did they have tampons in those days?

Not trying to say you're old or anything - just meant in the bad old days of sanitary belts.

My mum told me that she didn't use tampons until she had her first baby - he is now 35, so they've been around for ages.

Or are you calling me old?

Glad to hear it.

I don't remember belts being sold, and I'm older than Abi! Very odd...

1971. Though they might not have actually still been on sale at that point - could have been leftovers from someone.
They were awful but 100 times better than cotton wool wrapped in pieces cut from worn-out sheets.

So Abi's younger than 35. Hang on while I take off my shoes and socks...11...12...13...14.......

That would mean they were still around in 1977 or so?

Abi's younger than 32! And so am I for another 2 weeks.

You can still buy sanitary belts - the chemists round near me sell them!

When I got my periods (aged 11), my mother equipped me with a sanitary belt plus pads large enough to accommodate a she elelphant. A school friend realising my humiliating situation lent introduced me to lilets and I've used them ever since. (I'm 37 now)

P.S. My mother still thinks I use the 'belt'!!

I am not very good with non-applicator ones... I have short stubby fingers...

.. I had a friend uo put her Sts adhesive side uppermost - ouch!

Going back a good few postings - The injection is *much* worse than the Pill, and once you've got it, it's rather hard to change your mind!

Pre-sanitary protection, nice womenoften just locked themselves in their room for a few days... My Mum's got a lady's magazine my granny kept from the 30's. It has an advert for a new 'disposable product' and the text starts "When a lady has to absent herself from her duties for few days..."

but what about servants and ladies maids and stuff....

Well, in the stone age they used absorbent things like moss or rabbit fur, as do "primitive" tribes today, so presumably women continued to use some sort of padding between then and Victorian times.

When I tried to give up the pill, my periods got longer and longer until they were 3 weeks long, with 1 week brake. Also I started to get abdominal pain and sex became painful. This was 5 years ago.

So I went back on the pill and eventually injections. The pain never stopped and eventually I was diagnosed with vulval vestibulitis. That was after no sex for well over a year, nobody took it seriously, my doctor kept saying I had food poisoning cause the english eat badly.

Weird how it all started after trying to give up the pill.

Yes, I have put on weight, and now I am slowly starting to lose it again, just got to ignore the food cravings!