Today the average age to begin your period is 12, but in past cultures, girls didn't usually start menstruating until they were 16. Ancient women lived shorter lives than we do today, and most of the time they were either pregnant or nursing, so their periods were few and far between. Still, menstruating women needed to deal with their blood on those rare occasions.

Many cultures came up with their own versions of the tampon using whatever materials were available to them:

In Egypt, Cleopatra likely made disposable plugs from softened papyrus.

Women of Ancient Greece wrapped scraps of lint around a lightweight wooden stick, probably reusing the stick and replacing the lint as needed.

In Africa, women rolled up long blades of grass from the planes to create their tampons and pads.

Japanese women molded paper pulp into plugs to wear as tampons.

Women in Pacific Island cultures would harvest absorbent sea sponges from the ocean and insert them as tampons.

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