The rags: paraphernalia of menstruation
Monthly reassurance

An inevitable part of women's lives, the monthly period can be accompanied by fuss, mess, inconvenience, embarrassment, pain, discomfort and mood swings. No wonder it is often called 'the curse'. On the other hand, its regular appearance is not always unwelcome.

Oral contraceptive pill packet

Oral contraceptive pill packet, Anovlar 21, Schering AG, Germany, [1963-1970].
The Anovlar packet in the Powerhouse collection was donated by a woman who, like many others in Australia, started taking the Pill in the early 1960s. But she was not able to do so until her boyfriend found a doctor willing to prescribe it for unmarried women. Doses of oral contraceptives mimic the menstrual cycle – three weeks on the synthetic hormonal Pill and a fourth week on a placebo, triggering a 'menstrual period'. There is no medical reason why this artificial cycle should be monthly but developers of the Pill, Gregory Pincus and John Rock, believed that women would find the continuation of their monthly bleeding reassuring. PHM 94/74/1:4. Gift of Mrs Anne Smith 1994.

My sister and I shared a room in a residential at Glebe while we were medical students at university in the 1940s. A neighbour told us that one of the other tenants must be pregnant because she didn't hang out her sanitary towels on the clothes line like my sister and I did.
SS, Sydney, NSW

graffiti

 

Hi. I was here on 7/12/99 and I thought I was pregnant but I'm not because my monthly friend arrived. Thank God. Love ya XXOO.
Graffiti in women's toilet, Newtown Courthouse, NSW.
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