Allergic to scented sanitary products? Add your story here!

[wheresmymojo]

Loads of posts about scented sanitary products causing some of us to have issues such as:

• Itchy rashes
• Thrush
• Bacterial vaginosis

After a few attempts I have finally been able to get the attention from Always to respond to my issues.

I know lots of us have them and don't want to be fobbed off that it's 'just me'.

Please can you add your story below if you have issues with scented products.

As another poster has said - I'm pretty sure men wouldn't be expected to spritz Febreeze on their cocks all day for 7 days and have no issues.

I will be adding a link to this thread to my response to Always on Twitter (so obvs don't put anything outing unless you name change)

Yours,

Itchy Vag from Hampshire x

Purposefully avoid Always.

1. Plastic backed and fragranced means that they feel very sweaty and itchy, not dry and comfortable. Can't tolerate them for as long as my period lasts.
2. I hate that I can smell when other women wear them. It's a very distinctive smell which frankly is not very nice. Women tend to bathe regularly through their periods, wear deodorants and perfume. Why in god's name would I want my fanjo to be perfumed with a stale sickly smell that is a walking advertisement that I am menstruating?

I'd really like for some more work to be done on sanpro in consultation with real women. The design and even marketing is horribly outdated. That blue fluid can feck off!

Another here would couldn't stand the smell! Really strong, fake, chemical smell. Like walking round with a massive flashing sign saying yes! I'm using those horrific Always pads! One packet was enough for me, swopped to another unscented brand.

Periods are not "smelly", if you follow basic hygiene and change when needed. But those pads absolutely stink!!

I just can't understand why they were ever created? Who did the market research on it? Which woman ever wants a scented vag?

Always was my preferred brand but the scented ones give me awful thrush every time. I've had to stop using them. I don't hate the smell of them per se but I can't use them anymore

I hate scented pads. We do not want them!! This is the most sensitive area of our body. We are told we should wear cotton undies, wash with water not soap, avoid strong washing powders on our underwear, why the heck would we want to have scented pads?? It is SO ridiculously wrong.
I struggle to find unscented now. This is madness. I haven't found a single woman who wants the scent. Many are being forced to buy them because its so hard to find the plain ones. So please understand that just because you are still getting sales it doesn't mean we want to buy them.

How about this for a marketing idea... be the brand that advertises the fact you are healthier than all other brands because we can guarantee you never add scent. THAT would increase your sales massively.

I'll never ever use Always, mainly because I find it impossible to find a pad that isn't scented. Usually go for cheap supermarket brands. Like seriously ask them how it's the most common knowledge that feminine self-care means absolutely NO soap on your bulbs, so why do they put perfume on something that will be pressed against or for the better part of a week?

Anyway a few weeks ago I got caught short and my friend (we were in a remote cabin at the time would you believe with no nearby shops, on a Sunday!) only had scented towels. I got some regular ones the next day, but because of wearing Always for 12 hours my bulbs was red, swollen, burning and itchy for the duration of my already painful period.

It infuriates me how they get it so wrong

I would love if this thread got a 1000 posts and they did something about it!
#nofragranceflaps

Another Bodyform and mooncup user here!
Always make my vag so sore, and dry to the point where I end up with fissures and all sorts. Irritates the hell out of a bartholins cyst and I get blocked hair follicles when I use them too, along with BV. Nice! Thanks, Always.

I especially like knowing which of my gym partners are having a period at any given time, big thumbs up there.

Makes me want to vomit

I used to love Always, then I got pregnant and breastfed for ages - so I had a 2 year + break from my periods.... When they came back always had changed their formula and it was a hideous car air freshener scent in them.

Turns out that my vulva reacts rather angrily to it. It has the same effect as shoving a Brillo pad in my underwear, resulting in a red, sore, torn, weeping mess that took weeks to heal.

I was actually going to contact trading standards about it, but then my life was too busy with young kids and work and I didn't. But I should have. I did contact the Always customer service department via email and was told that women had asked for the scent in focus groups as one of the main complaints about periods was the smell, so they decided to fix that problem

I now use reusable pads and have a happy undercarriage again. The one time since then that my period caught me unprepared when I was out in town, I used a scented pad and BOOM it had the same corrosive effect again.

In conclusion, I now believe Always are a deeply mysoginistic company who hate periods and want women to suffer from more than cramps and javelin arse - it's not enough for our vaginas to bleed once a month, our vulva has to be torn to shreds too.

Also a loyal customer until they added scent. There is no need to add a scent and you can smell them on other women. I have switched brand to unscented and not only have I saved a fortune, I haven’t looked back. Terrible decision by Always.

I've used Always since 1992. The last 10 years or so I keep getting itchy and sore. I can only conclude is due to the scented pads. It's not even a nice scent! I've tried to change but no other product really works well for me. I wish they'd remove the scent.

Thrush here too from them and the rage inducing need to sniff packages of towels in the supermarket to see which ones are unscented. It’s got harder and harder to tell as the scented ones are so strong they make the whole aisle smell.

I was also fobbed off in response to my second complaint email. They told me it’s not fragrance but ‘odour neutraliser’ and other women like it. How stupid do they think we are?

Also - I hate wings on towels, more plastic, more faff, and impromptu bikini waxes! I assume I’m the only one as it’s nearly impossible to get them without now.

Scented sanitary towels are the work of the devil. Also surely Always must have noticed a drop in sales?

Even if they do change not sure I’ll go back Bodyform are a far superior product.

Aldi do a fab & cheap range of ultrathins..DD insists on them..

I think they dug their own grave, to be honest. I, like many others, have switched to Mooncups and period pants, and this scented nonsense is one of the (many) reasons I went down that road.

No reaction to them but have always thought 'why the hell would I want to smell like my nan every time I have a period?'. I mean I don't ever recall walking past anyone before they came about thinking 'I smell blood!' either.

I also can’t wear them for getting angry red sores where the wings fold over. I don’t need them any more anyway thank goodness. But they must sell enough to make it worth sticking to the formula or they wouldn’t produce them. If they were hit in the pocket they would change, for sure.

We need to make this part of personal health education at schools. I believe, like other have said, that young girls are using these from their first periods and don’t know that the symptoms they may be having aren’t normal. They may find swapping to non scented difficult if they are accustomed to feeling you need to hide the natural scent of a period as it is somehow ‘nasty’.

Scents can become normalised - think of the rank smells of some air freshening products and some of the heavily scented body deodorants.

And how do you know differently if this is all you have used? It becomes your norm and you’d end up being suspicious of unscented pads. What message do we send girls with a product like this? Your body does nasty things and smells need disguising at any cost to yourself.

Lots of schools have been receiving free period products as part of various campaigns - which is good. But if most of those products are scented, we do inadvertently risk giving the message to girls that they are expected to try and mask any odours with strong artificial chemical smells.

Thank you for this post. I am going to lobby the appropriate people in the where I work school to ensure where they are handing out towels to girls who need them, they aren’t using scented ones.

Also that we include in lessons on periods the information that scented towels can cause problems for some girls and women. This thread is evidence of that. I suggest any other teachers or parents consider doing the same.

Although I haven't suffered an allergy, I just wanted to add that I stopped buying them as they smell disgusting.

I contacted Always about this issue. I got the reply that research has shown women want fragrances pads. I told them that it was hard to tell which packs were fragrances or not and they said they'd feed that back to marketing and product development. I only use their sensitive range now. I'm sure many women are getting contact dermatitis and thrush from fragrances pads.

• fragranced not fragranced, sorry.

Stopped using them when the scent was added as it burns like merry hell. Switched to Aldi own brand, which is unscented.

I bought some always recently and it didn't say anywhere clearly that scent was added (I would have NEVER bought them if I knew) if they're going to add a shitty scent shouldn't they at least make it clear so people can avoid it

I used them at night only. My skin became extra dry and irritated and ended up with scabs, without scratching the area.
Switched to supermarket own, not as absorbent but no pain.

I hate them.

I started using pads post DC, and am another supermarket pad sniffer. Scented pads make me itch, and I too also hate that I can smell when other women are menstruating, and people can smell me.