TMI Pimping

[glasmalerei]

Anyone who's followed any of my TMI rambles for any length of time is probably familiar with the fact that I hate my female reproductive system and we have universally declared war on each other which involve irregular skirmishes that usually have me downing stupid amounts of pain killers and being all sorts of unhappy and gloppy.

Don't worry, this is NOT going to be one of those posts. ^_^



A few weeks back tammylee - who always has the most interesting recs - linked to a place that does cloth pads, with a note that she was thinking about trying them. After snorting over the name (come on, "party in my pants"? Abbreviated to "PiMPs"? What's not to laugh at?) I read through the FAQ, ascertained that they're completely machine wash and dryable, don't stain (much - less with dark colors), and last for years.

Given that I hate every brand of anything commercially available in stores (I'm 100% allergic to anything with one of those noxiously floral/baby powder "scents" in them, and increasingly allergic to most of the unscented ones too - I've had to pretty much give up on tampons as a surefire way of being a mess of itchy burning pain and if my cycle lasts for more than five days then pads start irritating the hell out of me too) I said ok, sure, I'm willing to try it. Last I knew I wasn't allergic to flannel or cotton. =P So I ordered a sample of a few different sizes in some fun patterns and figured I'd give it a whirl.

In a nutshell: I started my period three days ago, and after the first day I promptly went back to Party in My Pants and ordered MORE pads because omg these are my new bestest friends EVER. FOR REALS.

Comfy. C.O.M.F.Y. They do not slip around, they do not move, they're nice and thin and feel pretty much identical to normal underwear (mine tend to be cotton - satiny fabrics are on the list of things that make me itch), enough so that I've had more then one moment of "...wait, did I put a new one on or not?" because they're THAT unnoticeable. Perfectly secure during sitting, walking, housecleaning, yoga and tai chi (that being everything I've done so far).

Given that I'm at home for the holiday right now there's absolutely minimal muss or fuss - they really don't stain much (or at all), and I've had enough instances of having to wash underwear out in the sink after overflow accidents that washing out a cloth pad isn't all that different (and infinitely more comfortable in as much as it doesn't involve the "ARGH!" of messing up a clean pair of underwear or potentially a pair of pants as well). Easy hand wash, I pin them up in the shower to dry and they're ready to go again in a few hours. As I only have three right now I'm sort of rotating at need, and tossed the two I'm not using into the laundry load this morning. No staining, no overt smell (LESS than what is noticeable when I'm using commercial pads, really) and best of all, zero itch or irritation (that's probably related, as I usually have some sort of a yeast infection by the end of my period, directly relating to whatever brand of product I'm using.)

Yep. I'm a convert. And hey, it's greener and more cost effective in the long run and all that jazz... but best of all I'm COMFY. Now if the Riverdance Chorus of Clydesdale Ponies across my lower back would just knock if off, we'd be good to go (but that's what they make painkillers for). I've investigated other places that make them as well, but will stand with pimping the PiMPs - I like their design the best (and they fold up into self contained little packets, with neatly sewn in little tags that tell you what size they are at a glance. Useful!)

Besides... really? I wish my actual underwear came in these patterns. That would be awesome.

Comments

[niqaeli]

I was pleased with cloth pads because they don't provide the horrible diapered sitting-in-your-own-filth feeling that disposable pads do. It's so, so much nicer and you couldn't pay me enough to ever use a disposable pad again.

Though I actually have in the end come to rely on a cup, mostly, to control my menses, because I am lazy and the cup is AMAZING. Probably not for everyone, but oh my god so awesome. But it works. And it actually reduces my cramps. No idea why, but it does. And it sounds like it would be messy and if you drop it, okay, it can be, but mostly it's NEATER because all the blood goes in the toilet rather than anywhere else. And it's medical grade silicone so I don't react and it can be sterilised by boiling. And, just. Yeah. Love.

Between cloth pads and my cup, I don't use tampons or disposable pads anymore. So I'm saving money. And it's greener. And I'm so, so much happier. I do wish more women knew there are better options out there.

[glasmalerei]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I don't want any of that commercial crap anywhere next to my skin ever again. =P SO much nicer!

I've looked at the cups and they sound great but just... not for me. I have the worst time with tampons, and that's *with* applicators - the ones without are just a lost cause, I can never get them to sit right or in a spot that doesn't hurt. I can't imagine I'd do any better with a cup, which is sadness as the idea is pretty awesome.

[recessional]

I keep eying cups. What holds me back is mostly that I KNOW I'll be one of the people who has a ridiculous learning curve, and I didn't enjoy the learning curve with learning to use applicatored tampons. :P

I should get some cloth pads, though. . . . . huh, I should send that to mom as a stocking stuffer idea.

[glasmalerei]

Yeah, and it's one of those things where even one or two cases of "ow ow OW!" becomes a serious detriment to making me want to keep trying it, even if the eventual learning curve is worth it. =P

They would make good stocking stuffers! ^_^

(and now that I've covered comfortable and beaten back the clydesdales with painkillers, if only there was something useful to take for the accompanying nausea. blargh!)

[niqaeli]

It took me years to manage tampons without applicators, though I preferred them in the end because they were much more compact to haul around.

It's not for everyone, though, the cup -- it's not even insertion for me, so much as having to dig around a bit to get it seated comfortably. *wry*

[recessional]

Dimenhydrinate (Dramamine, I think, in the states) doesn't work for you?

[glasmalerei]

[blink!] ...I hadn't actually thought of that. (It's marketed almost exclusively as a motion sickness travel medicine down here.)

[recessional]

*g!* Well, it isn't. It's a general OTC anti-nauseant. Trust me, I've lived off it for YEARS.

[zero_pixel_count]

Awesome news! The allergy thing must seriously have sucked. (someone really did a number with the ad campaigns that taught us disposables were the best option, huh?)

(I am in some manner of love with the cup but I am also really fucking glad I ignored their age-based advice and got the small kind, and even then, I reckon it's probably not for you. God, it speaks volumes of past tmi that I can say that! I'm not sure why they think that once you hit thirty you must be like a bucket, but hey...)

[zero_pixel_count]

...since we're tmi already, a varying mileage...

Insertion is uncomfortable for me, but once in I find I can get the cup settled comfortably with my pelvic floor muscles; it seems to be willing to sort itself out in a way that tampons never would.

[glasmalerei]

Pffft, YES. Dear advertisers, you are DUMB and do not have my best interests at heart. =P The allergies have been mostly mild my entire life, but have been steadily ramping up over the years (mostly noticeable as "oh, that brand doesn't agree with me any more... okay, I'll try another one" which has happened with more and more frequency).

LOL! Yeah, I might have mentioned once or twice that obgyn exams are the ninth ring of hell as far as I'm concerned. ^___^ And yeah, I do NOT know what is up with that age based skew - what, you're supposed to have had a kid by then? In which case, why not SAY that? Base it on the frequency of your childbirth or your sex life, not your age. Sorry, but as far as I know your pelvic muscles don't just suddenly give out at the magic age of thirty. =P

[niqaeli]

The really bizarre thing is that the diva cup people DO say it about childbirth -- they suggest the larger one for female-genitaled people who have either a) given birth (vaginally, one assumes) or b) are over 30.

I can see the childbirth thing, yeah. But I'm pretty sure that in five years I'm still going to be going oi at the SMALL one. It's not THAT large, it's just large-enough-and-AWKWARD. And I can only imagine that people who don't ignore the age thing get SUPER intimidated when they first look at it and go "you want me to fit that WHERE?" I looked at it and went, um... okay, well, this'll be fun, rather than being too intimidated but yeah.

The thing about it, though, is that the pelvic muscles DO squish it down a fair bit and i think that's why it can be 'not-there' in a way that tampons can't, aside from the fact that tampons also suck all your natural moisture out as well as the blood. Because, it still functions as a cup, obviously, but it's not at all the same shape on the inside as it is on the outside. Which makes sense, because the vagina is not ACTUALLY a spherical tube. *g*

[zero_pixel_count]

They do mention childbirth separately, so it's not that, but still, a bunch of unwarranted assumptions being made about a) one's sex life, and b) the part where we're not all the same shape to begin with.

[lferion]

I love their fabric choices! And I am so glad that you've found something that works so well for you.

[recessional]

(someone really did a number with the ad campaigns that taught us disposables were the best option, huh?)

They were, back when most women would be running a whole household (and doing the laundry for them) and menstruation was a deeply shameful subject, which bringing up, discussing or having people SEE THE RESULTS OF was ill-bred and humiliating. Reusables required you to add YET ANOTHER THING TO WASH to your list of things to wash (sometimes with a non-electric washing machine, witness my grandmother), and you ran the serious risk of someone SEEING your DIRTY BLOODY CLOTHES.

Disposables, however, you could buy, use, roll up and hide in a bunch of toilet paper in your bathroom garbage and, short an unfortunate pet-related incident, nobody would ever know.

*looks things up* Ahah, and the composition of these ones is another part. For lo, when disposables became the norm, both nylon and in some cases various kinds of lycra (and sometimes even cotton) were nowhere near as useful on a textile level as they are now. They were replacing what were effectively a bunch of rags stuffed in your crotch, or pads that were big enough to feel like diapers.

(Not that the disposables were less diaper-like, but at least you didn't have to wash them.)

[glasmalerei]

I think what really boggles me is how things seem to go in cycles of extremes and then you have an entire generation of a society who have pretty much no idea that there even is another alternative because the thing that was so innovative to our grandmothers has become so very much the modern norm. It's sort of fascinating and creepy how quickly things can both change and be forgotten.

[glasmalerei]

The fabric choices totally sold me to begin with. I honestly wasn't expecting them to be as comfy as they are. ^_^

[recessional]

Yep. And fascinating how the technologies that turned our grandmothers from daily domestic drudges to people with time to think about something other than the laundry disappear and become ubiquitous, so that we wonder why on earth the "modern norm" ever happened. I mean, if you asked an average woman what one of the most labour-saving devices she had in her house was, I almost guarantee you very few (who weren't students of women's history) would say "my laundry machine and dryer."