1. They’re lovely and soft against your skin so you hardly feel like you’re wearing a pad.

2. They’re flexible so they mould to the curve of your body and move with you.

3. There’s no sticky backing so you never get your pubic hair agonisingly pulled if you get your knickers down in a hurry.

4. It’s easier to get them in exactly the right place because they fasten with a press stud (on the wings) so you can reposition them.

5. They smell much less – once used, you fold and fasten them with the press stud and pop them in a pouch in your bag – they do not smell at all.

6. You’ll save money. Even though they seem expensive to buy, they work out cheaper in the long run. I’ve worked out how much money you could save.

Research shows we spend £10 per month on disposable pads or tampons. But you can save a significant amount of money if you buy reusables like cloth pads and silicone cups. A set of cloth pads will pay for itself in 6 months. Thereafter they are effectively free. If they last 5 years (they can last longer) then you’ll save over £500 during that time.

7. They’re much prettier with colourful covers and beautiful stitching. I advise getting cloth pads with a white inside so that you can still see the colour of your blood. Some pads have coloured or even black insides which prevent you seeing the colour of your blood. It’s helpful to see it so you can track it – it can vary from black to brown to red or pink. Any changes to what’s normal for you could be a sign that something is not right and you should get a check with your doctor.

8. They’re easier to wash and get clean than you think – after use, soak them in a bucket of cold water (leave the bucket out of the way in the bath), change the water once a day (add a drop of lavender oil if there is any smell). At the end of your period, put some stain remover (I like Ecover’s) on any stains, pop them in the washing machine on a 30 degree wash with other laundry (don’t use fabric conditioner as it reduces their absorbency, you can add a little laundry bleach, again I like Ecover’s).

9. They have a lower environmental impact than disposable pads. In the UK the average woman uses 11,000 disposable sanitary products in her lifetime, which generates 125–150kg of waste. It’s estimated that there are 1.976 billion women of menstruating age on the planet – that is too many tonnes of waste to even contemplate! Fewer resources are needed to manufacture and transport reusable products from the factory to your home than disposables. They also create less waste at the end of their life.

You can also buy organic cotton ones which means no pesticides are used. This is a good thing. Pesticides are highly toxic so they kill our wildlife, pose a health risk to those people spraying the chemicals when the cotton is growing – and you, when you use the pads. Pesticides can also cause pollution of our soil and water – and make their way into the food we eat.

10. If you buy from an ethical company, you can help lift other women out of poverty. For example, I bought my cloth pads from EcoFemme because they provide a living wage to the women who make them in rural India and give one pad to a young woman in India for every pad sold outside of India as well as educating them in menstrual health.

If you use them already, do leave a comment below, saying what your experience of cloth pads is.

 

*Thanks to EcoFemme and @we.for.vegan (Hong Kong) for the gorgeous photo