Period underwear is now becoming an extremely popular staple within the world of menstruation. Who wouldn’t want underwear that absorbs Aunt Flo and reduces your need to buy pads that pollute the environment. According to 1 Million Women’s blog “Everything You Wanted To Know About Wearing Menstrual Underwear,” the average menstrual cycle will use up to 20 tampons which is 240 tampons a year and over your menstruation lifetime, 9,600 tampons are used. Period underwear really is the best of both worlds. 

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Today is National Underwear Day! While that is exciting, there’s still so much taboo surrounding period underwear. So today, let’s highlight the difference between regular underwear and period underwear. You’ll be surprised to hear that there’s actually little to no differences. 

It Absorbs Your Cycle

First off, menstrual underwear absorbs your cycle; the maximum absorption usually being up to two tampons worth of blood. In order to know how much that really is, we have to look at a regular cycle. According to Clue, “A fully saturated light tampon can hold up to 3 ml of fluid, while a fully saturated super tampon may hold up to 12 ml (3,8).” This means, period underwear can hold anywhere from 6 to 24 ml which looks like this: 

6 ml of liquid, the least amount of liquid period underwear can hold fills up a spoon

12 ml of liquid the most liquid a tampon can hold

24 ml of liquid the most period underwear can hold

This may not look like a lot. According to the NHS “Most women will lose less than 16 teaspoons of blood (80 ml) during their period, with the average being around 6 to 8 teaspoons.” Anything over this is heavy menstrual bleeding. “Heavy menstrual bleeding is defined as losing 80 ml or more in each period, having periods that last longer than 7 days, or both.”

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Here is what a typical cycle looks like looks like:

6 teaspoons (30ml) of liquid, the least amount of blood lost during your cycle

60 ml the most amount of blood lost during your cycle

16 teaspoons (80 ml), a cycle associated with heavy bleeding

So how does menstrual underwear absorb exactly? An absorption layer in the center of the underwear (the part you would usually put a pad on) absorbs the blood and leaves behind no stains, period. Sounds like magic but in reality it’s as simple as going throughout your day without a worry in the world. However, you should always wear something extra during the heaviest times. As they always say ladies, better safe than sorry!

But What Makes It Better Than Regular Underwear?

With regular underwear, you have the worry of going to the bathroom and changing to avoid ruining your favorite pair of underwear. You might even find yourself getting a couple of pairs of “whatever underwear,” the underwear you wear on your period. It doesn’t matter if you bleed through, have a small tear or ruin them any other way. It’s the underwear you wear because if anything happened to them, there wouldn’t be a worry in the world.

Menstrual underwear allows you to wear underwear you like, feel comfortable and confident in, without the worries of bloodstains ruining the look or style. The best part is period underwear comes in mostly every style of regular underwear. If you want to wear a thong on your period and have absorption, you can do it! 

As you can see, period underwear really isn’t that different than regular underwear in any way! Whether knowing more about period underwear now makes you want to switch to period underwear or not is up to you. If you do make the choice to switch to period underwear though, you should consider trying Maxim’s new period underwear, which is coming soon! It’s inner and outer layer contains 95 to 100% cotton giving the underwear a nice and soft feel while the inside contains an antibacterial fabric and PUL keeping the underwear waterproof and clean! As long as you’re happy with what you use to control your flow, you’re set.