Mrs. Rawles:
In the event of long-term TEOTWAWKI, a few questions come to mind – how did women deal with menstruation? I know this subject may be distasteful; but, reality check! Can a survival group stock up on enough toilet paper and “sanitary napkins”? Maybe telephone books will suffice for toilet paper, but what about “tampons” etc? In my experience, most “primitive” societies just let Nature take its course. Are our women (and men) prepared to do the same? What are your ideas? It’s coming!
The Memsahib Replies: We stock up on them just like we stock up on the other necessities of life. We had the opportunity to stock up on tampons almost ten years ago at near wholesale prices. Since they have an indefinite shelf life we have saved an incredible amount of money as I have been rotating our supply . See John Pugsley’s book The Alpha Strategy for more on this stockpiling approach. I think that tampons will be a highly desirable item for barter in the event of TEOTWAWKI .
To answer your other question, what did our ancestors do? They used rags which they washed and reused. Here are links to Norwegian knitted pads and Italian washable pads, probably from the 19th century which will give you some ideas on pads that women can make for themselves. Some modern women are using rewashable pads. Here is a source for one company that sells them.