Most women get the "period talk" when they start bleeding once a month, but few receive advice when their periods go away. Or at least that's what Kimberly-Clark is banking on with "Second Talk," a new campaign geared towards women 40 and over who are or will soon be going through menopause.

We've had some time to process Kotex's introduction of pads with pretty designs for women to bleed all over, but we weren't aware that the limited-edition "Designer Series" also includes tampons. Kristi Bryant, a Kimberly-Clark design manager, says the new line is an "extension of today's young women's personal…

Elizabeth Scharpf won the Curry Stone Design Prize for creating sanitary pads made from banana trees, which are 65% cheaper than Procter & Gamble's pads. Scharpf's organization Sustainable Health Enterprises is helping African women start their own banana pad businesses.

I've always found the word "speculum" really disgusting. Not the device, although that's no picnic, but the word itself. Here's why:

"In 1978, a team of scientists succeeded in proving that :vaginal malodor" among women using the contraceptive sponge is caused by sperm — specifically, the components sperm breaks down into after having been killed by spermicide." [BoingBoing]

See, the second two words kind of cancel out the first two. [ModernMechanix]

You're not unique, just another mindless sheep refusing to face facts. You'll stick this tampon up your vagina and like it. Or else. [Vintage_Ads]

From a 1930 Physical Culture: "Superior because safe, LUCOROL is non-injurious. Convenient and used without mixing...Dr. Lillian Whitney's book of facts, "The Modern Science of Feminine Hygiene." Tells "why" and "how" of modern methods." [ModernMechanix]

It's hard to decide which is better: the oceans of blue liquid we are confronted with nowadays or the David Foster Wallace novel that is this Kotex ad from 1947. "Discreet" does not begin to describe it; the sanitary napkins are concealed within layers of teen-friendly prose, topics ranging from how to accept a…

A British woman named Nicky Taylor — like millions of women — had a morning hygiene routine going on. Shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, cleanser, moisturizer, toothpaste, mouthwash, anti-aging serum, make-up, hair get, deodorant and perfume. She used skin creams at night as well. In fact, she had so much in her…