See a prototype of the first Kotex ad.
See more Kotex items: Ad 1928 (Sears
and Roebuck catalog) - Marjorie May's Twelfth
Birthday (booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are many
links here to Kotex items) - 1920s booklet in Spanish showing disposal
method - box from about 1969 - Preparing
for Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls) - "Are you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) - See
more ads on the Ads for Teenagers main page
 
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THE MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH
InSync Miniform pad for urine, menstruation
& other secretions that fits between the small
lips of the vulva (once obsolete but a new form, Unique
Miniform, is for sale in 2008)
The original Miniform got the following
write-up in the late 1990s:
The Miniform is a small pad designed to absorb small amounts of urine
and secretions from the vagina. Rather than pressing against the outside
of the large lips of the vulva, it sits between them - actually, between
the inner lips. It does not enter the vagina. See the company's drawings,
below.
Below are parts of the instructions for
the inSync, plus a picture of the pad and
covering, at top. If you are not on the West Coast
of the U.S.A., call 1-888-8INSYNC for a free sample or to order a box.
(As of June, 2002, the company might have gone out
of business. But, in 2008, the the Miniform is back on the market.)
The company (AFEM) plans to sell the pad in stores nationally (U.S.A.)
by spring, 1999. As of November, 1999, you can buy it at Fred Meyer and
Target stores in the U.S.A. It costs about $2.99 for a 24-pad pack.
Read about the company's resurgence in an email
(January 2008) to the MUM director:
In 1999 we had the miniforms on the shelves of 3,600 stores, and needed
either California or the East Coast to reach profitability for the product.
We were ready to complete an offering to give us the marketing capital,
when Capital Consulting, a $1.6B pension fund - which held 48% of my stock
- was closed by the SEC and the principals sent to jail. Naturally, my
financing went sideways.
While the assets of the pension fund were tied up in federal litigation
(48% of AFEM), I went back to OHSU to teach, laid everyone off, and used
what little cash I had left to keep the intellectual property alive.
(See the new Web site: http://www.uniqueminiform.com/)
In 2004, the federal case was settled, and the assets were purchased
by Goldman. I put a group of investors together who bought the stock and
re-capitalized the Company.
During this period, our friends at P&G were slowly moving forward
in the Miniform arena, but it wasn't a priority for them. Thus I was able
to buy all of their technology and add it to mine. Since this gave us a
new design that was easier and cheaper to make [see the Web
site], I cut a deal with KNH in Taiwan to be our manufacturer.
The Company name was changed to QuantRx
and here we are.
Let me know what you think about our website - it's a start - and if
you run across anyone who might want to help sell them, let me know.
That's the story in a nutshell.
All the best,
Bill Fleming
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Pad at right, pad in package
at left
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Copyright Harry Finley 1998
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