Anyone who knows me knows I love talking about bodies, especially 'female' bodies. Periods, sex, it's all up my alley. My close friends (and readers) know I have painful periods that make it hard for me to go about my day. They make me really weak and anemic, they've made me throw up, they give me digestive issues, the list goes on. Because of all these extenuating circumstances, I'll do anything to get more comfortable during my hell week. I've tried portable heating pads, a diva cup, a microwavable heat pack, cannabis, sex, and more to alleviate the severe menstrual pain I get every month. I usually end up laying in bed in my sweatpants using a tampon and a pad simultaneously, crying into a pint of Ben and Jerry's, binge watching Gravity Falls, giving myself second-degree burns from laying on my heating pad with the sleeve off to try and get some relief. It's pitiful, it really is.
So naturally, I was drawn to period panties: panties that claim they can absorb your menstrual flow in lieu of pads and tampons, or act as backup for a menstrual cup or tampon. They say they can hold up to two tampons' worth of blood, and they make a few different styles and levels of absorbency, from boxer briefs to thongs. They claim it doesn't feel like sitting on a wet pad, it doesn't have an odor, it's completely leakproof, and all you have to do is rinse it after every use and then machine wash them cold on laundry day.
It took months of window shopping. Repeatedly opening and closing websites like Thinx and Pantyprop, admiring the cuteness of the panties and wondering how they worked. Watching Youtube reviews of people who said they couldn't believe how amaaazing they were. Finally, I got an Instagram d.m. from a close friend who knows I'm open to period experiments, and knows I have rough periods, sending me a link to the Thinx website with the caption "you should try these and tell me if they work!"
And try them I did. That same day, I shelled out $28 (thanks coupon code!) on the 'boyshort' fit. It promised to hold up to two tampons' worth of flow, which (gonna be honest here) is about how much I go through in an hour and a half. And that's a super tampon, mind you. I splurged on express shipping, because I knew my period was due in two days and I wasn't taking any chances. They came the next day, and so did Aunt Flo.
The first thing I noticed was that they are HUGE coming out of the bag. I got a size large, because my hips are around a size 8, and there's just... a lot of material. This is partially because I got the boyshort ones, which go down to around my mid-thighs and sit at about my bellybutton. Regardless of how parachute-like they looked in my hands, I put them on like I would any other underwear, and holy SHIT.
They were so comfortable. After using an uncomfortable tampon overnight, these bad boys felt like a breath of fresh air for my vagina. You know that feeling when you take out a super tampon but it wasn't quite all used up yet, so it's kinda dry and your vag just generally feels dry and raw? Yeah. I was deep in that feeling. But the panties were breathable and cooling, and soon I started free-bleeding into them which helped alleviate the dryness.
So there I was, naked (not really) and afraid, bleeding into these black boyshorts. It was liberating. But for some reason, even though my flow is crazy, I trusted these panties to get me through the day.
AND THEY DID. They lasted TEN HOURS. Remember when I said I usually soak through two super tampons in an hour and a half?! Well, this day was no different! It was a very heavy flow day, and these babies caught EVERYTHING. The other weird part was that unlike a pad, when you pull down your underwear to go pee, there's no gross bloody mass in your pants. It all just gets absorbed and it's miraculously gone. Literally, I was sitting on the toilet like, "where the hell did all the blood even go."
I have to admit, taking them off I was a little nervous. The 'hand-rinse in cool water' aspect was weird to me. I put them under the bathtub faucet, and no blood rinsed out of them. So at this point, I was like, 'did I even bleed today? Is this a fever dream?' But then I wrung them out in the bathtub after getting them soaking wet, and bloody water came out of them like a freaking geyser. So clearly, I had bled into them quite a lot. But here's the weird part -- it took a lot of wringing to get the blood out. Honestly, that just lent itself to more of a sense of security. I knew these babies wouldn't leak on me.
TL;DR: Thinx period panties are awesome. You can (probably) wear them without backup protection even if you have a flow as heavy as mine. They're comfy and honestly pretty cute. The rinsing process is fine if you are comfortable seeing your own menstrual blood. You have to really wring them out when you rinse them. 10/10, would recommend, will probably buy a second pair.
So naturally, I was drawn to period panties: panties that claim they can absorb your menstrual flow in lieu of pads and tampons, or act as backup for a menstrual cup or tampon. They say they can hold up to two tampons' worth of blood, and they make a few different styles and levels of absorbency, from boxer briefs to thongs. They claim it doesn't feel like sitting on a wet pad, it doesn't have an odor, it's completely leakproof, and all you have to do is rinse it after every use and then machine wash them cold on laundry day.
It took months of window shopping. Repeatedly opening and closing websites like Thinx and Pantyprop, admiring the cuteness of the panties and wondering how they worked. Watching Youtube reviews of people who said they couldn't believe how amaaazing they were. Finally, I got an Instagram d.m. from a close friend who knows I'm open to period experiments, and knows I have rough periods, sending me a link to the Thinx website with the caption "you should try these and tell me if they work!"
And try them I did. That same day, I shelled out $28 (thanks coupon code!) on the 'boyshort' fit. It promised to hold up to two tampons' worth of flow, which (gonna be honest here) is about how much I go through in an hour and a half. And that's a super tampon, mind you. I splurged on express shipping, because I knew my period was due in two days and I wasn't taking any chances. They came the next day, and so did Aunt Flo.
The first thing I noticed was that they are HUGE coming out of the bag. I got a size large, because my hips are around a size 8, and there's just... a lot of material. This is partially because I got the boyshort ones, which go down to around my mid-thighs and sit at about my bellybutton. Regardless of how parachute-like they looked in my hands, I put them on like I would any other underwear, and holy SHIT.
They were so comfortable. After using an uncomfortable tampon overnight, these bad boys felt like a breath of fresh air for my vagina. You know that feeling when you take out a super tampon but it wasn't quite all used up yet, so it's kinda dry and your vag just generally feels dry and raw? Yeah. I was deep in that feeling. But the panties were breathable and cooling, and soon I started free-bleeding into them which helped alleviate the dryness.
So there I was, naked (not really) and afraid, bleeding into these black boyshorts. It was liberating. But for some reason, even though my flow is crazy, I trusted these panties to get me through the day.
AND THEY DID. They lasted TEN HOURS. Remember when I said I usually soak through two super tampons in an hour and a half?! Well, this day was no different! It was a very heavy flow day, and these babies caught EVERYTHING. The other weird part was that unlike a pad, when you pull down your underwear to go pee, there's no gross bloody mass in your pants. It all just gets absorbed and it's miraculously gone. Literally, I was sitting on the toilet like, "where the hell did all the blood even go."
I have to admit, taking them off I was a little nervous. The 'hand-rinse in cool water' aspect was weird to me. I put them under the bathtub faucet, and no blood rinsed out of them. So at this point, I was like, 'did I even bleed today? Is this a fever dream?' But then I wrung them out in the bathtub after getting them soaking wet, and bloody water came out of them like a freaking geyser. So clearly, I had bled into them quite a lot. But here's the weird part -- it took a lot of wringing to get the blood out. Honestly, that just lent itself to more of a sense of security. I knew these babies wouldn't leak on me.
TL;DR: Thinx period panties are awesome. You can (probably) wear them without backup protection even if you have a flow as heavy as mine. They're comfy and honestly pretty cute. The rinsing process is fine if you are comfortable seeing your own menstrual blood. You have to really wring them out when you rinse them. 10/10, would recommend, will probably buy a second pair.
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