6TH-15TH CENTURY

Moss For Menstruation

Most people who menstruated would have used cloth rags to absorb their menstrual blood, or free bled into their clothes. But in some areas of Europe, sphagnum moss was used as wadding between layers of menstrual rags.

Sphagnum is a family of mosses that grow in bogs. The popular name for this moss is blood moss as it is highly absorbent, can hold 20 times its own weight in moisture and has a history of being used as a bandage. 

Historically, it has been used in battle, with its earliest recorded use at the Battle of Clontarf in Ireland in 1041.

Feminist scholars argue that the sphagnum moss epithet “blood moss” came from its use in absorbing menstrual blood as anyone living near a bog would have been aware of the abundant plant’s absorbent qualities.