to expect sanitary protection manufacturers to actually do their research

[paperdress]

Apologies if im repeating a familiar subject but i sort of wanted to join mumsnet just to rant about this and see if other women experience things in the same way as me.
When i was in my 20s i remember that tampons and/or pads did the job. These days (mid 30s, 2 kids), they dont touch the sides...changing 'night time' pads 2,3,4 times a night, wearing super xxx maxi etc. tampon AND pad and STILL leaking, waiting on the loo to pass a clot before even attempting to wipe...
I used to use a mooncup and keep meaning to go back...but honestly? Should that be my only option? Why cant the big brands be arsed to do a bit of r&d and produce a functional product accordingly?
Surely im not the only woman in the market for some decent san-pro?
(and as for those spookily scented ones...yeah, thats just what i want to be jamming up against my privates...)

I use ultraslim maternity pads (Boots or Tesco). They seem to absorb better in that the blood is contained more effectively, although I'm not sure if the total volume they can hold is greater than a sanitary towel.

YANBU

My periods had got to the stage where I was flooding through a super plus extra lil let in an hour. Horrid. I had PMT like you wouldn't believe, along with killer migraines.

I saw a gynae chap who suggested a Mirena or an endometrial ablation. The latter is only if you are definitely not going to have any more children. We have 2, I'm 41. So I had that done the day after my birthday in August.

Best birthday present ever. I haven't had a period since. PMT is gone, and so are my migraines.

Wahooo!

A maternity pad by rights should hold more than the average pad as it's a heavier than normal 'flow' following birth, so a good clot-catcher is required, BUT what the majority of you are describing is even heavier 'flow' than a woman who is post delivery, so a maternity pad may not be adequate. TENA may be the only way forward whilst there is no alternative, could be good be good especially at night as someone posted earlier

I'm in America. Most of my women friends are lesbians, as am I. No one here likes scented sanitary protection, either.

Wolfsaidtheladybird - how come the endometrial ablation got rid of your PMT? I know it gets rid of the lining of the uterus, so is this related to hormones? I am thinking of having endometrial ablation, but I am a bit worried as I don't know anyone who has had it.

I think that sanitary towel manufacturers will start to improve things if they get this sort of feedback. I remember when I used to make a towel with wings for nighttime use out of a large towel and panty liners, and doing a t shape at the back. I now take tranexamic acid so it is a bit better, but still find that blood doesn't always soak into a pad that well and sort of runs off!

www.novasure.com/info/novasure-and-heavy-periods/novasure-faqs.cfm

This solved everything for me. Mine were awful except on the pill. If my link isn't working it's referring to endometrial ablation. It's not for everyone as you have to be sure you don't ever want to be pregnant again.

Frankie4.I posted before I saw your post. It was night and day for me. It was done as an outpatient treatment done at a Bupa hospital. I had a bit of pain for a couple of days but nothing as bad as my periods. I also felt a bit groggy but I think that was the anaesthetic (they gave me morphine, which I have to say made me feel on cloud nine until it wore off)

Afterwards periods were instantly lighter and then petered out completely after about 9 months.

I'm assuming I'm now through the menopause given I'm 54 but haven't experienced any"change of life"

Not sure how or why the PMT goes, but whoosh it has. I definitely still ovulate though. Must be something to do with the progesterone peak preparing the womb lining?

I was in for a day case. Tons of morphine too. It was amazing. So snoozy and woozy all afternoon :)

Honestly, anyone thinking about an ablation, look into it. It's brilliant and has changed my life dramatically.

Was also going to recommend maternity pads - I use a combination of the bog standard old fashioned ones (super cheap!) and the Boots slim ones (which are much longer and wider than normal sanitary towels). I use them mainly because they're unscented as well as big. Switch to Cottons when flow reduces.

I've been meaning to ask this on Mumsnet for a while, but is it normal for periods to change radically post-baby in terms if what they're like? Pre-baby I had nice manageable genteel light periods, 3-4 days, building up gradually to heaviest flow on day 2, a lot of pain during the first day but a steady light flow (never soaking through a regular tampon/pad and pantyliners only on final day).

Had DD earlier in the year and have been unlucky to get periods back early despite EBF (boo). Less pain than before, but though there seems to be about as much blood in total they are now shorter but floodier - 2 days of flooding then nothing! It's literally like someone turned a tap on then off two days later. I'd never flooded beforehand, but now each time the first day is like a bloodbath. Has my uterus/cervix just been so stretched by giving birth that now it just empties everything out like someone's pulled a plug? Has anyone else had this and what on earth causes it? I really miss my previous friendly periods (though not the crippling period pain quite as much).

YANBU, so many knickers and pyjamas and sheets stained. Padding bottom with loo roll just as an extra barrier.

I bought a mooncup and haven't looked back - I know this thread isn't about that but I haven't looked back. Vote with your feet, or rather with your fanjo.

Closingeveryhour- that! exactly that. I used to meander thru my period pre kids; a bit here, a bit there, but now, as you say, its v intense, v brief and this is why products cant cope. But i suspected i wasnt alone. Dunno if this is kids or age or both.
And yeah, the scented product thing is sinister and patronising and i have bought crapola brand pads before now simply because they were the only non-scented option on the shelf

Have you tried incontance pads?

paperdress I'm glad I'm not alone! It's definitely DD that has made a difference for me, as otherwise my periods were actually getting lighter for quite some time (since about 28 I think. I used to have much heavier 7-day ones as a teenager.) Nothing like this 2-day gushing I get now though: my first period after the lochia was much worse than the lochia - filling a maternity pad in an hour! I wondered whether I should go to A&E, except my sister told me her first few periods after children were awful. I do hope the period pain is gone for good as a compensation. Mind you I used to get horrendous period pain - really bad - and naively thought labour couldn't be much worse. How wrong I was!

I also hate the scented pads. Yuk! I thought it was well known in the sanpro industry that women shouldn't use scented things down there as didn't they try scented stuff before in the 70s or something and it didn't sell/was notoriously bad for fanjo health? Or maybe they've all taken shares in canesten or something.

Washable mega pads like the honour your flow one are seriously absorbent and very large and may be helpful but they are one of the more expensive ones

Mooncup is definitely a great option for heavier flow, much nicer than multiple pads or night wakings - but I still do think that you should check with a doctor. It is often down to fibroids or other issues - and to think of it another way, the manufacturers actually do their research and would certainly be providing ones with more protection if there were a majority of women (or even a sizeable minority) needing them. Hopefully you can get a solution better than having to wear nappies every night

You can buy 'super plus extra' non-applicator tampons in Boots and Tesco, they're own brand and work pretty well. I find that non-applicator tampons (Lilets etc) work better on heavy days anyway as they are widthway-expanding. Tampax and the like expand longways, so if you're really heavy then it almost ends up falling out. They're fine for lighter days though and more comfortable to insert when there's less, er, lubrication.

I guess pads are only as good as the knickers you put them on - the thickest pads in the world are going to leak when attached to knickers that are too baggy or too small.

Lillets superplus extra are in my larger tesco, so I buy tons of them when i get a delivery. They are not in every tesco though. I have worked out that each month I spend approx £12 on gear! Maybe that is behind the manufacturing of all these thin ones that don't absorb and everything just sits on the top. You use thrice as many.

So not only do we need a footlong but we need footwide gussets. Then we are laughing.

Re: narrow gussets, on heavy nights when I need everything to stay firmly in place, I borrow a pair of DH's stretchy boxers to wear over the top of everything. Much more grippy than my flimsy undergarments.

What we do need are nappies.

Or nice cotton granny pants that stay firmly in place.

A good large tampon at least usually prevents large clots from coming out in one. They create a more steady flux that allows soaking.

BTW, now I understand why my large tampons often start coming out and hurting. It's by expanding lengthwise! Thanks for that.
I'm going to check the brands I have at home and use accordingly.

Men's boxers wouldn't work with me.
My ex's were all at least an M, while I'm XS to S.
It would have been worse.

My 8 year old boxers might be better.

Paperdress - I know you mentioned earlier about things being pathologised, and the coil mentioned, and it sounded as if you had rejected that option - but can I suggest you reconsider?

I have a Mirena coil in - it is my second one - and the first one was put in to deal with heavy periods (not as heavy as yours) - and it was nothing short of miraculous. I didn't have anything more than the tiniest smear of a break-through bleed for 5 years, and no more period pain either. So when it became obvious that the hormones in the coil were running out, earlier on this year, I had a new one put in.

The first one went in under GA (I was having another procedure at the same time, so my gynaecologist did it then), but the removal of the first one and instertion of the second one was done by my GP at my surgery - and though it was a bit uncomfortable, it was not at all bad, and I had no discomfort afterwards, though I had been warned to expect a bit of cramping.

For anyone that has problems with the super extra plus tampons from lilets they now do ultra tampons, which still only last me about hour and half with a nightime towel but its vast improvement on the others.

I know I have fibroids, been under the hospital since ultrasound in February!! Keeping thinking that this will be the last month - make that every 23 days - I have to suffer but no firm plan yet as to sorting things out. I might investigate the maternity pad or tena lady pants for nightime I need more sleep than I'm getting when on my period.

Wow, thank you todaysdate and lunatic. I had not heard of the ultra ones. Just been on the lillets website and it does say they are a stage higher than the super plus extra, so I'll be getting my order in.

Super plus extra - for very heavy flow
Ultra - for extremely heavy flow (orange box)

Not expecting miracles but certainly will be giving them a go.