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THE MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH
Sea Pearls menstrual sponge, contemporary [2007], U.S.A.
(company Web site)
This is the most recent product; the company's older sponge offer [2000]
is here.
Women probably have used sponges for absorbing menstrual discharge,
medicating their vaginas and killing sperm for thousands of years. See older
commercial American sponges in this museum and
read an expert's advice about cleaning them at the bottom
of this page.
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NEXT: Selections from the 2007 Sea Pearls
literature
The contemporary Gynotex (from the Netherlands)
menstrual sponge
Beautiful (Australian?) sponge can with sponge
lacking a net.
Anna Health Sponge (U.S.A., 1940s?)
Cardboard American sponge can with sponge.
Orange-design can with sponge. Black
can and sponge.
Main sponge page
This Web site and museum do not endorse this
product, nor do they profit in any way from it (except for the gift of the
sponge and literature). It's simply information for site visitors and part
of history.
Cleaning sponges
Museum board member and menstrual safety
expert Dr. Philip Tierno, Jr. wrote me in October 1999 about cleaning sponges:
Dear Harry,
Yes, indeed, soap and water will not effectively clean the sea sponge.
The odor emanating from the used and washed sponges represent the action
of surviving vaginal bacteria and their degradation of menstrual debris
that survives the wash. The only effective way to sanitize those sponges
is by boiling for about 5 to 10 minutes. This
will kill ALL bacteria there.
Interestingly, looking back in history, women used to boil their menstrual
"rags" to get them clean. This
is an analogous circumstance.
Best regards,
Phil
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© 2007 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
of the work on
this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission of the
author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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