Greener Periods

Today’s post is a guest blog from Katherine-Alice who is one of my bestest friends and a pretty great human. You can follow her on Twitter here for early morning puns and critical analysis of the film Bee Movie. 

Periods. Ew. They’re just bloody terrible (pun intended).

I’ve been on the depo injection for the last two years, and only recently came off it. I was super nervous about having periods again, cos they’d been so, so bad (which was why I’d gone on the injection in the first place), and they had completely stopped for over 18 months while I was on the injection, which was so, so good. Sadly, when it started up again, it was as gross and terrible as I remembered.

My periods last about 7-8 days, and I was getting frustrated at spending so much money on pads, so when I found a website that sold reusable sanitary products, I was intrigued. When payday came around, I invested in three “medium Earthwise pads” and one “long Earthwise pad”, which came to £14.50 (and delivery was only about £2.95). They arrived quickly (with a little packet of Love Hearts in the package!!), but I had to wash them twice before using them to increase the absorbency. I totally get why you have to do this but it was frustrating because I was about to come on and I was just so excited to use them!! But I managed to be patient, and once they were double washed, I packed them up to take on holiday with me (I’m having periods every 2 weeks at the mo so I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long!!)

The pads were super comfy to wear, and felt really fleecy and snuggly to the touch. I have really sensitive skin, but these pads didn’t irritate me at all. They fasten with a popper underneath the crotch of your underwear, which is good except for the fact that the shorter “medium” ones slipped back and forwards slightly as they weren’t stuck in place. The long one was fine though because it didn’t really have any space to move! The absorbency of these things was kind of incredible, and I didn’t have to change them constantly even when my flow was really heavy. I think I changed them three times a day at most. They also felt really dry even when things were going cray down there.

The four I bought didn’t get me through my whole period, although I used them while I was away and didn’t have the facilities to wash them as I used them (side note: because of the poppers, they actually fold up so you can put them in a washing basket/bag without worrying about staining everything else in there!! Although I did put mine in a biodegradable carrier bag inside my wash bag for smell reasons.) I would suggest maybe getting 8 or so to get through a whole period if you can wash them as you go along. I’ll warn you now – washing them is pretty gross. The care instructions suggest treating them with lemon juice or soaking in cold salt water before you put them through the washing machine, and I went for the cold salt water soak. It was pretty disgusting, but obviously worth it as they came out of the washing machine SO clean (and ready to be used again in a week hahahaha thanks Mother Nature.)

I would highly recommend trying reusable sanitary towels, as they are much more eco-friendly, and generally better for your body as well. It’s not expensive to invest in a few (and you’re saving so much money in the long run), and on Earthwise Girls, which is the website I used, if you buy some of the bundle packs then a pad of the same size gets donated to an orphaned girl in Kenya through the Nasio Trust. All in all, you’re doing the world and yourself a lot of good!! 

Side note – I chose the header image because it reminded me of the hilariously wrong ‘carefree’ images that are used in period-product advertising. Also because I couldn’t find one of a woman in sweatpants eating a family sized Dairy Milk cuddling a hot water bottle. For some reason. – Codie