Even as an adult who can typically tell when my cycle is about to start I still end up with stained undergarments and sometimes pants. The worst is at night when things move around and you wake with stained sheets and ruined pajamas.
Considering I have cheap cotton underwear that is 2-4 years old, if these prevent leaking as they claim they could potentially save me time, anxiety, embarrassment and money.
So when I read this article about THINX, while I want to be positive about anyone who works to make people's lives easier and less stressful, all I see is commerce. These are basically luxury items that are intended for people who already have access to sanitary pads. It almost seems like the whole story about being inspired by a girl in South Africa is a marketing ploy to get people to purchase their product by preying on people's sympathy for an unrelated issue. If they really wanted to help women around the world, donating a small portion of sales to one African country is not what I would consider a realistic approach to that goal.
... but it's a good start.
Their CEO Julie is great - studied chemical engineering at Brown, was very active in the local RI startup scene, raised a series A, and the company is now based in NYC.
Assuming their manufacturing process isn't too toxic, this could be vastly more environmentally friendly than pads and tampons. The downside of reusable, durable items of this nature, is that it's gross and requires handwashing.
Basically it's underwear with a built-in sanitary pad.
I think what these women are saying is, "I personally find wearing a pad disgusting" and not "Women who wear pads are disgusting." I definitely would call pads gross or disgusting, and when I say that, I mean that is my experience with wearing them in comparison to tampons.
With tampons, the blood doesn't make it to the vulva, in general. So the vulva stays a lot cleaner. If you wear pads, the blood flows out, so it dies and cakes on your pubic hair, labia, and anus. In addition, you can feel the blood once it exits, so there's a continual "gooey" feel, squelching when you sit down, etc. I honestly don't know why women who wear pads prefer it.
To be clear, I don't have any hygienic concerns with pads, nor with women who wear them. It's just that both the mess and the felling caused from wearing pads vs tampons I personally find gross.
I've had little further discussion or interactions surrounding it, but that one anecdote basically reinforced my gender role of being weird about going to the store to buy them for my partner.
I found this which sounds like pads are used more: http://lipglossandabackpack.com/feminine-hygiene-around-the-...
The first sentence is: "Tampons are used by up to 70 percent of menstruating women in the United States today, and the average woman may use as many as 16,800 tampons in her lifetime."
It's really not pleasant stuff to deal with. Plus, it is contaminated by mucus of varying amounts and thicknesses.
Really great people there too, and their products last for years so it reduces a lot of waste.
But I suspect I will not ever buy them. I have a compromised immune system. If I bleed on my clothes, I throw them out. Washing blood out is not sufficient for my needs. So I am kind of grossed out by the idea of buying underwear with the intention of bleeding into them and then washing the blood out and then doing that again.
that probably it. Back in USSR times the single use pads were a luxury, and women frequently were getting by with kind of self-made and somewhat reusable pads. The moment [western] single-use pads/tampons became available they stopped using anything else.
In particular, i think, there is an issue with washing out as it is not only blood there, and all the stuff wouldn't be washed out completely, especially from inside built-in padding material. Things change of course, yet 30 years ago regular detergent in regular cloth washer wasn't enough.
No idea how pricing works out. In the end, it might be smarter to just buy a box of 10 granny panties at Walmart for 12 bucks than pay $20 a pair for these high-tech ones. (The 5 day set is $180.) Especially if they can only hold 2-6 teaspoons of liquid. Seems the 'help a girl in the third world' narrative is pretty disingenuous here at those prices. Pads cost a fraction of that. This seems like something a western woman would use on top of a pad or tampon.
Does every startup need to be about "changing the world" and "helping the third world?" Its practically self-satire at this point and was expertly mocked in HBO's Silicon Valley series. This is a luxury good, not a charity.
I don't think the majority of startups are out to 'help the world,' though many are out to change/'disrupt' (even this one claims to be disrupting). I don't know that I find that such a bad thing, though. Many products try and fail to change what they see as a problem, but there's really no harm in that. They're just trying to help.
But leaks don't just affect panties, I've ruined many sets of sheets, expensive pairs of jeans and even a very nice dress. As a very frugal woman I would buy a pair.
I wonder how much margin there is at the current price point. If it costs them $15 to make one their product might be DOA...
That way if you rip it, or lose it, or whatever... nobody cares. Plus... it's more exciting when women buy new underwear frequently. My girlfriend will text me, "I'm wearing new panties..." and I'm cutting out of work early.
Doesn't every woman carry a tampon in her purse?
Can't you just take a no-period birth control pill?
Ok, glad we're helping the girls in Africa, but wouldn't the $47 a pair be better spent directly on them if that's the real goal?
1. "Expensive underwear are bad because I gain sexual gratification from new underwear and money spent on expensive period underpants take money away from that." Could you be more self-involved? How about respecting women to know what products they want, considering they are the one actually having periods? But no, it's all about keeping your dick hard. Okay.
2. Yes. Women who use tampons carry tampons around with them. However, the way you know when your period starts is when you find blood in your panties. At which point there is already blood in your panties. You shouldn't put a tampon in prior to your period arriving as that is a) extremely uncomfortable and b) risks TSS, but wearing special underwear as a precaution seems reasonable. Also, when the tampon is full, it will leak. This can be pre-empted, but not 100% of the time, as flow varies. This is why many women wear panty liners in conjunction with tampon use. And yes, it is fucking annoying to make sure you always have a tampon with you 100% of the time, and isn't 100% successful, thanks for your concern.
3. Again, your ignorance astounds me here. For one, spotting is common with continual use of birth control. So actually these panties would be pretty helpful with that as spotting is completely unpredictable, unlike actual periods. Secondly, did you seriously just suggest that every woman who menstruates go on continual hormonal birth control as an alternative to expensive panties? You do realize that BC a)has side effects and b) costs money?
4. No, that's not the real goal. They're making a product. For people to buy. Which should be obvious. The charitable link-in is a common marketing technique.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-tee...
