Period pants when travelling

[hotandwanttoswim]

Hi,
I'm going on a 9 day trip during which unfortunately I will have my period. I will be moving between multiple hotels during this time and won't have access to laundry facilities so was planning do my washing when I get home from the trip.

So what to do about my period pants?
a) rinse out the blood and put the wet sodden pants in a nappy sack and tie up
b) put the bloody pants which are otherwise dry in a nappy sack

So either way I would be dealing with them when I return. Which would be least smelly and disgusting?

Thanks

I had this dilemma last year, on the advice of others I bought a cup. Don’t know if that’s an option for you but it was so much easier.

I am interested to understand period pants. Are they used as additional protection to tampons or on very light days. If not, how many times a day do you have to change them? I can't understand how they would not always be smelly?

Tried very very hard with the cup but it always leaked a bit so I had to wear periods pants with it anyway.
I sometimes wears tampons with the pants and pants are just a precaution if they leak. But prefer to go tampon free at night and just wear the pants. Also wear the pants in the couple of days before my period is due just in case, due to slightly irregular cycle.

I would switch to disposable pads for that time. Why are women expected to inconvenience themselves?

Rinse out, hang up in bathroom, preferably on a heated rail, on going to bed? And let tampons take the brunt as much as poss?

I only use period pants at home (used to use a cup but don’t find it as comfortable post babies) and tbh when I’m travelling I just revert back to pads and tampons. It’s too much faffing, especially if the trip encompasses the first heavy days of my period. The Flo pads are very good and made of bamboo fibres, so no horrible plasticy feeling.

I have a large black wet bag (would recommend even for just keeping soiled period pants in at home) so could theoretically do it, but I wouldn’t wash them in a communal washing machine and the idea of emptying the wet bag a week later doesn’t appeal to me either.

I have to use period pants OP as my periods are so heavy that no other device, pad or tampon can cope.

Period pants have been a life changer for me.

In your situation I would rinse them as normal, and then wash them in warm/hot water with some washing powder and then leave them handing out somewhere that they can dry.

If you are unable to take washing powder with you, or obtain some at your location, then fully rinsing them out and letting them dry out is probably your best option.

If there is no option to dry them out after their rinsing then putting them in a nappy bag will be your only option.

You don’t say how often you use them but I would be absolutely screwed if I couldn’t wash and re-use mine. I have to change mine 4 times a day and I only have 7 pairs so I’m on a constant cycle of washing them!

I hate the sweatiness of and don't quite trust disposible pads at night time with heavy flow so really wants to avoid if possible

I wore mine on holiday earlier this Yr. Washed them out and hung in the bathroom and they dried overnight.

You will ruin them I am sorry to say. They can’t be left that long without washing.

Either take travel wash and wash them properly by hand- or accept defeat for the holiday.

Please don’t leave them rinsed or unwashed, you will destroy the absorbency and it will be expensive to replace them.

i have enough of the pants to last my period, just got some more from M&S which are not too expensive and seem fine more my lighter days

I use a washable nappy bag/wet bag.

I would (and have, and do even when I am at home!) put them in the wet bag without rinsing. Just add the next pair of pants to the same bag each time you change them.

When you get home, shake the bag out into the washing machine (no need to even touch them if you don't want to), run a short cycle to rinse them (a short cycle rather than a rinse, so there's some warm water in there!) and then add the rest of your washing and run a normal wash.

This is what I do at home too. I put them all in a wet bag until the end of my cycle (5 days ish) and then wash them short cycle on their own to get most of the blood out, and then add my washing and wash them.

As pp has said, if you can't dry them after rinsing you'll just make any smell worse. I have a similar trip coming up, early starts and not in the same place 2 nights in a row, and am thinking a zip-lock bag would be the best protection against smells. I get bad thrush with pads and also can't use a moon-cup so pants have been a life-saver. I was also considering taking the medication where you can delay your period for a few days, but I've not tried it before and it worries me a little that it might disrupt my hormones.

I think I'd just suck it up and use pads or tampons during the trip. They'll stink if you don't rinse them, even bagged but dragging round a bag of wet heavy period pants is going to be a pain.

Maybe reusable pads would work? You've still got to rinse them but they'd be less cumbersome than pants. Or take a tupperware of washing powder and try drying them with a hair dryer maybe?

If you'll have your own room/bathroom I would rinse them as usual first, then wash as well as you can in cold water. You could take a bit of detergent with you (tube of stergene for example) if you want to wash them properly. Dry them hanging over the shower or whatever then store in the special bag you got with them.

I was recently away for 3 days and just put them dry in the bag but they weren't soaked with blood. When I got home I just emptied the bag straight into the washing machine.

Rinsing then putting them wet into a bag for days will be really awful...will stink of damp when you open. I'd rinse and hang up to dry as much as possible.

It’s a much better idea to machine rinse not short cycle first, it’s the same as with cloth nappies. The dirty water from a rinse is drained far better then you start the wash cycle with clean water and the detergent.

A heavy absorbency incontinence pad for night time should protect from any leakage. I actually find period pants not absorbent enough and more sweaty for really heavy periods. I just don't find them very hygienic either but maybe they are suited to women with a lighter flow.

Wearing an enormous uncomfortable disposable pad (only maxi pads cope with my nighttime flow and even they leak sometimes) is more of an inconvenience to me than wearing comfortable cotton period pants that are absorbent all round, don't leak, aren't sweaty, absorb blood better and contrary to what some people are saying seem to deal with the smell of period blood better than disposables. Each to their own... OP wants to use period pants because that's her preference.

I do the same as happy at home, I do not rinse them immediately, I put them into a nappy bag as I used to cloth nappy the children so I still have the bags. Once my period is finished I empty them all into the washing machine and put it on a rinse cycle and then a rinse hold so they sit in the water for a bit, then I add bathroom towels to the wash and wash as normal. In fact I have just done this today.

I have used reusable sanitary stuff for over 20 years, never rinsed immediately just use the washing machine to rinse otherwise I would have wet knickers sitting in a nappy bag. So contrary to @AlltheFs stating you will ruin them, I have never ruined pads nor knickers or affected their absorbency. I have had period knickers for years before they became something you can now buy in a supermarket.

@silverbubbles you can wear period knickers as a back up in case you leak or you can wear them like you would a pad. Or use a tampon in the morning but the knickers for the afternoon. The absorbent pad is built into the knickers. As for changing, there are ones with clips on the side to remove them if you are say at work and don't want to fully remove your trousers or tights, there are very absorbent ones for heavy flow that you could wear all day as you would at night. As I don't work outside of the home I can just remove my trousers in my own bathroom.

@AlltheFs I agree that period pants are very similar to cloth nappies - that's why they get a short (1hr) cycle in 40° water rather than a rinse! Nappies get the same treatment (though they get a 1hr 60° wash before their main wash).

Rinsing doesn't wash nappies or period pants as well as a warm (40°) or hot (60°) wash does.

NB the short wash I am referring to is not a machine-managed prewash. Often the prewash water isn't drained from the machine before it mores to the main wash, so I do two separate cycles.

This is what i think. Carrying either wet or unrinsed pants around will be pretty horrid and probably ruin them.

I'd rinse/handwash and dry overnight, and then if there was a dirty pair in the morning I was checking out I'd rinse/hand-wash, wring dry then use towel /hairdryer combo, place in nappy bag (maybe with a dryer sheet or two)

I’d rinse them through and pop them in a bag like this: Deal: OTraki Dirty Laundry Travel Bag Waterproof Wet Dry Bag Swimming Wet Clothes Bag Reusable Hanging Zipper Organizer Storage Bag for Swimsuit Gym Beach Towel, 16 x 20 inch 2 Pack https://amzn.eu/d/j7Eouws
and try and hang them to dry whenever you can.

It's such a pain in the arse. Counting down til the menopause!