Read ads for Pond medical tampons, 1910, U.S.A. See a stock certificate (1916) for probably a company that made medical tampons used in World War I. Read a meaning of the word tampon from a 1900 nurses' dictionary from the U.K. Read also a discussion of the word with examples.
Medical tampons mentioned in newspapers, U.S.A., 1894-1921
Tampon directory.
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MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH
Former physical museum - museum comic strip - homepage

Draghi Detection Tampon (submitted by the patient to a doctor or
laboratory for the detection of cervical cancer)
Tampax Inc. (U.S.A., date?)

Tampons have plugged holes in the body probably for thousands of years. They absorbed bodily fluids - pus for example - and carried medicine to the cavities.

The Draghi tampon - Andre Draghi invented it - allowed women to insert it themselves into the vagina to pick up cells, which a laboratory or physician then examined for abnormalities like cancer. It spared women and doctors the time necessary to accomplish the same thing in the doctor's office.

From the patent (1959):

This invention relates to a tampon for detection of cancer [all color and bold face added]. More particularly it relates to a tampon as a means for mass screening and detection of cancer of the pelvic region.

The frequency of advanced cancer of the pelvic region presents to the medical profession a disturbing picture. One author states that only a relatively small percentage of the cases of cancer of the cervix is detected in the early stage of the disease. This is in spite of the various methods to detect cancer of the cervix which have been developed and are being used by gynecologists today. Among the practical barriers to prompt diagnosis is the inability and the reluctance of many women to present themselves periodically to a physician for a gynecological examination whereby early evidence of cancer may be detected; this inability and reluctance is a direct cause of the high percentage of advanced cancer which occurs or develops in the pelvic region and particularly in the region of the cervix uteri. Furthermore the protracted gynecological examination of the patient which is necessary to obtain full diognostic information, is time consuming for the physician and nurse and accordingly any such routine periodical examination may be prohibitively expensive for the patient, and the medical organization undertaking it.

Complete diagnosis to determine whether and to what extent one has cancer must require a thorough gynecological and pelvic examination and biopsy. Preliminiary diagnosis to determine if there are present any indicia of cancer however, may be asserted by taking a sample of cells which are present in the cervical canal and the vagina and the subsequent microscopic analysis of these cells. While a thorough gynecological examination and biopsy should be performed in those cases in which the preliminary diagnosis indicates cancer, the preliminary diagnosis can serve to screen many women and thus initiate the early treatment of those who have indications of cancer.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a means for mass screening for cytological detection of carcinomas of the pelvic region.

A further object of this invention is to provide through the cooperation of the patient herself, an accurate, inexpensive means by which cells present in the pelvic region can be collected and thus screen large numbers of women thereby reducing the percentage of cases having advanced pelvic cancer.

It seems to me that Tampax was probably not the only maker of the tampon but I have no proof of this.

Dr. Robert Dickinson wrote in a famous report that medical (not menstrual) tampons "used to pay the office rent," something to think about during a battle to improve health care. By the way, the doctor wrote that of women who used tampons in 1942, 37 percent made their own. The paper insert for an early commercial American menstrual tampon mentions this practice and the long-standing use in Europe of homemade tampons among actresses.

Tampax, the first menstrual tampon with an applicator, has been the number one tampon in America for decades and quite possibly the first commercial menstrual tampon in Europe.

Read ads for Pond medical tampons, 1910, U.S.A. See a stock certificate (1916) for probably a company that made medical tampons used in World War I. Read a meaning of the word tampon from a 1900 nurses' dictionary from the U.K. Read also a discussion of the word with examples.
Medical tampons mentioned in newspapers, U.S.A., 1894-1921
Tampon directory.
I thank Procter & Gamble, current owner of Tampax tampons, for donating the box!
Below: The front of the cardboard box. The other sides are blank. I guess Tambrands didn't feel doctors had to be seduced by color and fancy graphics.


NEXT | the tampon - box
Read ads for Pond medical tampons, 1910, U.S.A. See a stock certificate (1916) for probably a company that made medical tampons used in World War I. Read a meaning ot the word tampon from a 1900 nurses' dictionary from the U.K. Read also a discussion of the word with examples.
Medical tampons mentioned in newspapers, U.S.A., 1894-1921
Tampon directory.

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