Wash 'n' Wear Pads

You’ve got your period. You start digging through your stash and - what? - no more pads! Do you make a last minute dash to the store to sift through new and expensive gimmicks? Perhaps you’ve thought, “There has got to be a better way!” There is.

I tried the small, medium and large cloth menstrual pads by Australian maker, Pleasure Puss. The design of the cloth pad is quite simple: absorbent cotton, adjustable snap and closure wings. Like most women, I thought “Is that for me? Will it be gross and leaky?” I was worried about the absorbency, and if I felt like I would be wearing a diaper and constantly checking for leaks. Not so. The cloth material means no bunchy or sticky plastic to get all twisted out of shape, and the absorbency was far above what I have experienced with any store-brand pad - no leaks or wet feeling. No fancy gels either; Pleasure Puss pads are all natural and come in cute colors and designs (mushroom tartan!).

You can clean them by hand or in the washing machine in cold water. The pads wash easily and thoroughly. You can put them in the dryer, but I sat them in the sun and they dried in about 2–3 hours.

On the Pleasure Puss website, I calculated that I would be saving roughly $5,000 from now until menopause on disposable menstrual items! Reusable cloth menstrual pads are not just financially wise, but it is heath-wise not to put the strange chemicals in the ‘super absorbent gel’ or ‘cotton-like lattice’ - blablabla - next to one’s delicate parts, or to hand those substances off to mother earth when the garbage gets hauled to some landfill.

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