Choosing the Right Reusable Period Product: A Complete Guide

In recent years, sustainable menstrual products have revolutionized period care. From menstrual cups to period underwear, these eco-friendly alternatives offer comfort, savings, and environmental benefits. This comprehensive guide will help you navigate the world of reusable period products to find your perfect match.

Understanding Your Options

Menstrual Cups: The Versatile Classic

Menstrual cups have gained tremendous popularity for good reason. These small, flexible silicone or TPE cups collect rather than absorb menstrual flow, offering up to 12 hours of protection.

Key benefits:

• Cost-effective (one cup lasts 3-10 years)

• Leak protection for all activities, including swimming

• Reduced risk of irritation compared to tampons

• Zero waste during use

• Available in various sizes, firmness levels, and shapes

Many first-time users are surprised by how comfortable a properly fitted menstrual cup feels. While there's a learning curve, most people master insertion and removal within 2-3 cycles.

Menstrual Discs: Maximum Capacity and Comfort

Menstrual discs function similarly to cups but sit in a different location—tucked behind the pubic bone in the vaginal fornix. This placement offers unique advantages.

Key benefits:

• Can be worn during penetrative intercourse

• Often provides higher capacity than cups

• May reduce cramping for some users

• No suction to break upon removal

• Typically sits higher, making it unnoticeable

Menstrual discs come in both disposable and reusable options, with the latter offering significant environmental and cost benefits. The insertion technique differs from cups, requiring a pinch-and-push method rather than folding.

Period Underwear: Effortless Protection

Also known as period pants or leakproof underwear, this innovation combines absorbent, moisture-wicking, and leak-resistant layers in styles that look like regular underwear.

Key benefits:

• Extremely user-friendly with no insertion required

• Available in various absorbency levels and styles

• Perfect for overnight protection

• Great for light days, spotting, or backup protection

• Ideal for teens, postpartum, or those uncomfortable with internal products

Modern period underwear can hold multiple tampons' worth of flow while feeling dry against the skin. Many users combine them with cups or discs on heavy days for worry-free protection.

Finding Your Perfect Match

Consider Your Flow

• Heavy flow: High-capacity menstrual discs or cups paired with period underwear

• Medium flow: Any option works well independently

• Light flow: Period underwear or a smaller cup/disc

Consider Your Lifestyle

• Active/athletic: Cups or discs for leak-free movement

• Swimming: Cups or discs (internal options)

• Long workdays: High-capacity cups or discs

• Travel: Cups or discs to avoid changing in unfamiliar bathrooms

• Sensitive skin: Medical-grade silicone cups or organic cotton period underwear

Consider Your Comfort Level

• New to reusables: Start with period underwear

• Comfortable with insertion: Try cups or discs

• Physical limitations: Period underwear requires less dexterity

Making the Transition

Starting with reusable period products doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. Many people begin by:

1. Using period underwear as overnight protection

2. Trying cups or discs at home before venturing out

3. Using reusables as backup with traditional products

Remember that there's a learning curve with any new product. Give yourself 2-3 cycles to adjust before deciding if a product works for you.

Caring for Your Reusable Period Products

Menstrual Cups and Discs

• Rinse with cold water after emptying

• Clean with mild, oil-free soap

• Boil for 5-10 minutes between cycles

• Store in breathable container

Period Underwear

• Rinse immediately with cold water

• Machine wash cold without fabric softener

• Air dry to preserve leakproof technology

• Replace when elastics wear out (typically 1-2 years with proper care)

The Environmental and Financial Impact

Switching to reusable period products creates significant positive change:

• Environmental: The average person uses 11,000 disposable period products in their lifetime. Reusables can reduce this waste to just a handful of products.

• Financial: While the upfront cost is higher ($30-50 per product), the long-term savings are substantial—up to $1,500 over five years compared to disposables.

• Health: Many reusable options are made from medical-grade materials without the chemicals, fragrances, and irritants found in some disposables.

Making Your Decision

The best reusable period product is the one that fits your body, lifestyle, and comfort level. Many people find that a combination approach works best—period underwear for light days or sleeping, and cups or discs for heavier days or activities.

Remember that your period care can evolve with you. As your body, flow, and comfort level change, you can explore different options to find what works best for each stage of life.

With sustainable period care now FSA/HSA eligible in the US, there's never been a better time to make the switch to reusable period products that are better for your body, your wallet, and the planet.

Saalt is a sustainable period care brand working to support everyone who menstruates. They dedicate themselves to creating clean, high-performance products that are better for you and the planet. Their ethically made period cups and period underwear are for professional athletes, office workers, adventurers, and those new to their cycle. For a process that is natural and essential, Saalt offers something just as natural and straightforward.

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