Here are OPINIONS about menstrual cups
Introduction to a History of the Menstrual Cup, Tassette, Tassaway, The Keeper, Daintette
***The Perils of Vaginal Douching*** (essay by Luci Capo Rome) - the odor page
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepage | MUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants & panties directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

The menstrual cup in The Intimate Side of a Woman's Life,
by Leona W. Chalmers (1937, Pioneer Publications, Inc., Radio City, New York)

Leona Chalmers might have created the first commercial menstrual cup (read a provisional history of the cup) in the U.S.A. (among other contenders is the Daintette cup), in the 1930s, although patents for cups go back to the 1860s in the United States (here's the first).

This book has almost the exact title and cover photo of a pamphlet from probably the same period, but in this tour de orifice she describes enemas for women, douching (which she promotes, especially for the common white or clear discharge from the vagina, leucorrhea), vaginal exercises and sexual hygiene. Today we frown upon douching (read an admonitory essay), as it disrupts the natural acidity of the vagina and destroys or flushes out necessary bacteria.

Frank Netter, M.D., drew the illustrations; he was a well-known medical illustrator. The New York Times wrote about an exhibit of his work.

At the bottom of this page I put the second of two testimonials on the back of the dust jacket, which attributes many divorces to "unclean" wives. (Unclean wives, read this ad!)

Read the rest of the chapter, Vaginal Hygiene (douching), from which this section was taken.

The director of the cytology section of a state public health department kindly donated the book.

 

The cover and title are almost identical to that of her probably contemporary booklet

 

The instructions for inserting the cup, similar to those today. 

 

Above: One of two testimonials on the back of the dust jacket. Throughout the book Chalmers writes only respectfully of doctors and their profession; she is a doctor's wife herself.
"[B]reeder of disease" takes you by surprise, doesn't it?

Next two pages
second set of text pages - third set of pages - cup adapted for medical use

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