From Rags and Weeds to Cutting Edge Technology: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Menstruation Products. Period.

Menstrual pads of one kind or another have been since the 4th Century. According to Greek history, a woman named Hypatia was so frustrated at the discomfort hers caused, she was arrested for throwing one out of the window. It's a feeling most women have shared at one time or another.

The first disposable menstrual pads were invented by Benjamin Franklin. He originally intended the folded, disposable linen and gauze square to be used on gunshot wounds. His mistress (or his wife, depending on which version of the story you read) took one look and thought "Aha."

About a century later, disposable napkins made of wood pulp became available commercially. Instead of washing out their pads, women were free to live it up and toss away the bags of sawdust when they became saturated. And pick out the splinters, no doubt. And until the safety pin was invented, they had to keep their legs together to keep the pad from falling out of those frilly bloomers.

In 1921, the first sanitary napkin pad that most women today would recognize was introduced, but a woman didn't just walk into the store and ask for them. Little boxes were placed a gentile distance away from other shoppers, where a woman could drop in her money, then stare innocently into space, while a clerk took the cash and handed over the contraband.

The 1960s brought us the tampon. You could swim, go horseback riding or maybe succumb to Toxic Shock Syndrome. After tampons, thinner pads with "wings" became the new go to menstrual protection. The thin pads used polyacrylate gels (a byproduct of the petroleum industry) They brought down the bulk, but are an environmental nightmare.

Now with UndiePads, there's finally a comfortable, safe, convenient solution to a problem that's been plaguing women for centuries.