Feminine hygiene products play a vital role in everyday lives of women, from pads and tampons to douches for menstrual care.
Tampons are internal sanitary products designed to absorb menstrual flow, and come in sizes to accommodate heavy, normal or light periods. Most come equipped with an applicator tube for easier placement into the vagina.
Tampons
Tampons are pocket-sized plastic or cardboard applicators equipped with absorbent material designed to collect menstrual blood during periods. When placed inside, they leave a string hanging from them for easy removal afterwards.
Tampos can come scented, but for best results it is wiser to choose unscented options, as the scent can disrupt your body’s levels of bacteria. They may get caught inside you; in this instance, pulling on the string firmly until it comes out usually works; if that fails and it cannot be located or removed by yourself then seek professional assistance immediately from a physician or family doctor.
Tampons can typically be found at pharmacies and grocery stores, but for some women their access may be restricted due to income or social stigma surrounding menstruation. As a result, some may use cloth pads instead; campaigns aim to destigmatize menstruation while making tampons more widely available; the Democratic Women’s Caucus wrote to FDA in 2024 requesting they review current safety standards on tampons for example.
Pads
Menstrual care products like pads can make periods easier. These external feminine hygiene items can be used alone or combined with tampons to alleviate light to heavy flows for girls and women of any age, and come in various sizes and absorbencies that meet each person’s flow needs and intimate needs; additionally, pads pose less of a risk than internal period products for triggering TSS symptoms.
Most menstrual pads feature wings that fold over your underwear to keep it secure and prevent leaks, providing long-term protection from light to heavy periods and overnight protection. You can find reusable options that reduce waste while being washed and reused again for more sustainable menstrual care solutions.
Wipes
Though discussing feminine hygiene products might feel awkward or embarrassing, they play a critical role in maintaining health and well-being among millions of women around the world. These products enable women to fulfill their professional, family, and social responsibilities effectively.
Access to these essentials may be limited for some. A recent study revealed that those without sufficient funds to purchase menstrual products often resort to using cloth, rags, or toilet paper to manage their periods instead. Some even have to choose between food and tampons.
Wipes come in many different forms, from baby wipes to medicated menstrual pads with pH balancers, that can be used for personal and feminine cleansing as well as makeup removal, washing the body when bathing is impossible or inconvenient, applying deodorants and sunless tanners, applying deodorants and applying deodorant/sunless tanner. Many disposable wipes sold are considered cosmetics while others serve a more therapeutic or medical function such as eye, ear or dental cleaning wipes with boric acid/K+Zn combinations/ZnSulfate content or disinfectants containing boric acid/K+ZnSulfate.
Wash
Menstrual hygiene products play a central role in women’s daily lives, yet discussing them may be uncomfortable. With an estimated global feminine care market worth $15 billion and increasing concerns regarding plastic applicators, synthetic materials, and high absorbency tampons’ environmental and health impacts – their development has spurred innovation.
Sharra L. Vostral states that female hygiene products aid women in passing as healthy and allow them to fully engage in their social and economic lives, yet if these necessary items are inaccessible they can force women to use anything from rags, toilet paper, diapers, and paper towels from public restrooms as alternative forms of menstrual hygiene products.
These alternatives may also be detrimental to women’s health and the environment as they contain ingredients linked to allergies, asthma, cancer, endocrine disruption and poor pregnancy outcomes. To lower your risks and protect both yourself and the environment, look for fragrance-free period products and wash reusable menstrual cups regularly. Douching — which involves flushing vagina with various cleansers or water — should be avoided as this may lead to irritation, infection and even vaginitis.
