We had an exciting day in our Period Nirvana location in Asheville when a former Tassaway menstrual cup user honored us with her stories. Since opening our doors in April, 2025 we have had many inciteful and heartwarming conversations with visitors who shared stories of their lived experiences using products on display in our museum exhibit. Many visitors lament about using the “mattress” sized pads of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s then exclaim how thankful they are to be in menopause. So far only one visitor has used the Tassaway menstrual cups that had a short life in the early 1970s. Just as soon as they appeared on shelves, they seemed to vanish. Rhea shared her story with us and we are honored that she allowed filming so that we could amplify her story beyond the walls of Period Nirvana.
Rhea is in her 70s and vividly recalls buying and using a new product on store shelves called the Tassaway menstrual cup. These cups started appearing in stores around 1970. At that time, Rhea was in tenth grade. Her mother said tampons were off limits, but her period was extremely heavy and irregular. Not only that, but due to financial limitations she had to stretch the use of her pads by wrapping them in toilet paper. The cup, once she discovered it, “solved all my problems!” she exclaimed in our interview. And might I add that Rhea’s bold adoption of the menstrual cup, not the tampon, is a cheeky example of malicious compliance that definitley fit her personality!
Rhea emptied and rinsed the cup in the morning and at night, and she checked on things in the school bathrooms. Having a cup meant that her heavy periods didn”t interfere with her schooling.
Tassaway marketed itself as a disposable menstrual cup. Ads and included instructions told customers that they had to toss the cup after one use and insert a fresh one. Each box of Tassaways included 8 disposable cups. The Tassaway cup was the reinvention of an even older menstrual cup design, the reusable rubber Tassette cup of the 1930s-1960s. The original Tassette cup designer and company founder, Leona Chalmers, sold her company and the IP to an investor, Robert Oreck, in the 1960s. Robert and his team tried to elevate the menstrual cup to mainstream status with bold marketing efforts, but failed.
The new strategy? Design and sell a one-time use cup. They assumed the Tassette failed due to the lack of convenience. And the company’s struggle to make a profit would be solved by repeat customers.
Rhea was one of the many devoted Tassaway customers. She was also in the unspoken club of users who found the cup to be sturdy enough that tossing it seemed a waste. She, like so many thousands of others, discovered that the cup was easy to wash and reuse. Depsite the marketing and included instructions, the cup did not dissolve when washed, and could last through many, many wears. Rhea chose to use one cup per cycle, instead of the recommended one cup per day. Therefore her box of 8 could last 8 months, compared to just 1-1.5 cycles!
One day, Rhea said, the Tassaway vanished. She went to buy more but stores were sold out. This was before the Internet, Rhea or other devoted Tassaway fans had no way to search “where did the Tassaway go?” Enterprising and desperate customers wrote letters to the company asking where or how they could buy more. Some stocked up and purchased their own “lifetime supply” once they learned Tassaway stopped production. According to lore, more than 20,000 customers wrote to the company. Rhea only learned at Period Nirvana that Tassaway shuttered. She had no idea that much later, new cup models revived the concept like the Keeper Cup in the 1980s. Rhea’s daughter is now a devoted Hello Disc user.
It was a pleasure to spend time with Rhea and her daughter at Period Nirvana. Rhea was an open book about her period struggles and her short-lived “period nirvana” with the Tassaway cup. As a “Tassaway rescuer” I have now found and saved 5 boxes. Two boxes are on display inside our 100 Years of Period Product Technology exhibit in Asheville, NC. I donated one full box to the Flow exhibit that concluded a run in Berlin, and is now touring various museums in Europe. I donated a single cup to the Period Museum in Taiwan which is on display.
And the two newest complete boxes will be stored safely. If another exhibit or museum needs them I would be happy to send them. Vintage period products, their boxes, their instructions, and ads are a window into another time, but they are designed to be thrown away or hidden.
If you appreciate the work being done by Period Nirvana and our free museum exhibit please consider supporting us. You can contribute to our museum fund, making it possible for us to acquire and save items like the Tassaway cups or invest in museum grade storage and display solutions. Purchase a postcard at any amount $5+ and we will mail it as a thank you from our museum. If you have an item you think might be a good fit for our collection and are interested in donating you can contact us.
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