Think Period

Let’s talk about periods. As painful and annoying as it is, we women get it once a month for most our lives. And with that comes many single use sanitary products. The regular sanitary products made from cotton often have plastic in them or are in plastic packaging, which as we know is not good for the environment.

Over the last year or so I’ve been trying to be more eco conscious, being more aware of the amount of waste I’m making and trying to find alternatives to reduce the number of waste I produce.

There have been many amazing alternatives made in the last few years that I have discovered such as the menstrual cup – a silicone cup that you insert into your vagina much like a tampon but instead the cup catches all the blood and when it’s full, you simply empty it into the toilet give it a rinse and use it again. These cups can also last up to 10 years and are also cleaner and safer to use in your body because tampons, which aren’t made from organic cotton, will most likely contain chemicals and it’s not healthy to keep something that contains chemicals in your body for too long.

The substitutes I use because I’m not so use to using tampons are period proof pants. These are made up of 4 layers of material that can soak up to 2 tampons worth of blood. These are great for people who often use sanitary towels. With these you simply wear them as your normal underwear and at the end of the day rinse them with cold water until all the blood is out and put it in the washing machine. I do find these are better for medium or light days.

These period pants companies are great because they have different pants for different flow days as well as active wear such as period bikini bottoms or swimsuits for extra protection or again if you’re on a lighter day and fancy a swim.

Other alternatives are reusable cloths pads. They’re shaped in the same way as a sanitary towel is but instead you reuse them the same as the period pants. Finally, if you can find organic cotton pads or tampons they’re better for your body as well if you don’t want to use the reusable alternatives.

These products may seem very daunting because it involves wash and touching something with blood, which is why these products may not be for some people. They’re also a bit pricey but in the long run, you pay for a good quality product that’ll last you for a long while rather than going out and buying a single use sanitary product every time. I would recommend anybody who has periods to give any of these products a try at least once.