Period Care: Maybe You Shouldn't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

Pads vs. Tampons vs. Menstrual cups vs. Period panties

I've personally read, like, ten articles about these versus battles regarding the best choice for hygiene products during your menstrual cycle. My first product choice had been pads for the longest time. Back then, 12 years old and very put out about having to experience this "passage of womanhood" (bunch of bullshit then, certainly more so now), my arguments were more centered to which brand of pad worked better. Wings vs. no wings. Super heavy or regular. Yadda yadda- tampons are the DEVIL- yadda.

So it went for years. Years! Literally a decade passed before I faced the argument of hygiene options again. And even then, it was menstrual cup vs. tampons vs. pads.

Now . . . I wonder why I ever needed to make it a competition. Because why can't I have the best of, y'know, all worlds?

See it's like this.

Pads are a great starter product. They don't require getting too intimate with your own body during replacements like a tampon or a cup, and there are tons and tons of different options. But maybe pads are a little too bulky for you (even the Always infinity that are so sleek) and you don't like feeling them there. Don't like how the wings can get crumpled, or the smell that can result from having a blood filled pad just sitting there until you replace it. You don't like feeling the blood just slide down . . . . and when you sneeze, Jesus Christ.

Menstrual cups have been my favorite option for about seven years now. I've gone through two different brands, Lena and Saalt (this brand is sold at Target for immediate access instead of waiting for shipping!), and I have had minimal problems after an adjustment period (ha!) to get used to the new cup. Once they settle inside you, you don't even feel them and you've got three to six hours (depending on flow, because Saalt can stay in your body for 12 hours thanks to medical grade silicone) to just chill around in your skimpiest panties or none! It's all you! But maybe the thought of going so . . . deep . . . when you're on your period is not palatable for you. You don't like the idea of having to pull out the cup and clean it every replacement, the hassle and effort it takes to do all of this. Shudder thinking about having a bigger clean up effort than with pads. Don't even like the thought of insertion point blank period.

So, tampons maybe! An option I've only recently started warming up to in the past year. Like the cup, you put it in properly and you don't feel it. Way easier replacement process than with the cup right, because a tampon isn't reusable. They're travel friendly, they come in different sizes for your flow just like a pad, and you can still wear your skimpiest panties with this option! Or none! But maybe you're still unenthused with touching so much blood. Don't like the thought of insertion at all, don't trust that this option could keep you secure for even an hour, and especially wary of it for more active lifestyles. Maybe you're very conscientious about your impact on the planet, and the thought of all those plastic applicators does not work for you.

Period underwear? I've never used them. They sound cool though! You just . . . wear some comfy bikini cuts and they absorb the blood like a pad would, but there's no additional bulk. And there's so many brands that make cute styles from delicate thongs to comfortable boy shorts. A far cry from my first "period panty" which were the full coverage and high waisted blocks of fabric. They're reusable right, you just wash in cold water, no plastics to throw away and no having to wiggle anything out of you. From what I've read though, perhaps there's some warnings to give. Like, that although many period underwear boast all day wearability, you have to remember you're beholden to the strength of your flow at all times. You'll want to buy a week's worth because you can't put them in the dryer. Meaning if you have heavy flows like mine, requiring like three to four tampons during one work shift, you'll either have to have an extra underwear in your bag or just not wear them during your heaviest days.

Do you see where there's pros and cons to all these? And . . . do you see how all of them shine in various circumstances over others, that each option has a strength that can cover over another's weakness? So, maybe it's not about finding the best one or two options that you find a way to work with through all the curveballs your period can throw at you. I'd always believed that you should only use a couple of things and figure out there, but, that's ridiculous! You should be using all of these options, mixing and matching in whatever way possibly makes an already physically and mentally stressful time easier for you.

Like I'm personally fine with a little mess if it means I'm not feeling a clot of blood dribbling out of me so my best choice is always going to be a menstrual cup. However my greatest champion is not always my most convenient! I tried out using a cup at work for a year and I absolutely abhorred it. Having to use my workplace bathrooms is already ick, but then I've got to take off everything below waist, put it away, replace and clean the cup- which means I need to have cleaning supplies on hand, like Charmin wipes if I'm lucky- then you need to hope you're relaxed enough during that timed ordeal (because it's work, they're definitely going to question you if you take fifteen minutes in the bathroom no matter what you say) to reinsert that easily. And then! And then you can't even breathe once you've reinserted it because you have to make sure it's opened properly and there's proper suction so it's not sliding or allowing blood to seep past. And on your heaviest days, guess what you can count on doing in another four hours?

So I quickly realized this wasn't going to be a public friendly option. Cups are wonderful within the safety and confines of my own home, in my own bathroom where I can sprawl around and do the necessary yoga pose to get my cup in and out in peace. In public? Tampons have been much better "out and about" options. There's eco friendly options as well, with either cardboard applicators or just no applicator at all in lieu of plastics. Easy out, in, and clean up. Five minutes tops! And on days where maybe I'm just not able to ignore the sensation of inserting a tampon, or I'm too exhausted to even try, my good old pads are there waiting to welcome me back. And, who knows? Maybe I'll buy a couple of period underwear just to see what all the fuss is about. Wearing a cup overnight is playing with fire and tampons for longer than four is just asking for TSS . . .

But I'm tired of playing it safe with my period hygiene products. All of these options are available for our comfort, our convenience, and our choice. And that's the biggest thing here! When so much of you and your time is held up by some pro-zygote riot your body is trying to throw, politeness and modesty get thrown out the window. I reject my egg, my endometrium, and the societal notion that I shouldn't be as comfortable as humanly possible during my period. And maybe I'm the only dweeb whose been playing the game like this, limiting and stiff, but now I've been struck with a bolt of clarity. What I was doing before . . . was pointless.

2022 is all about comfort and pleasure, and even my period routine can get an overhaul in the pursuit of those goals. Below, I've dropped some links to help you think about adopting this goal!

Period Underwear:

Thinx underwear

Knix underwear

Saalt underwear

Menstural Cups:

Saalt cups

Lena cups

Rael cups

Tampons:

Rael organic cotton tampons

L Organic cotton tampons