Always pads have made me bleed

[Memetic]

I’m itching, swollen and bleeding. I stopped using the perfumed shits as soon as I saw I was shedding skin. My bits feel paper thin and the itching won’t stop unless I smother on vagisil. Why the fuck would they perfume pads?!!!

The perfumed crap they put in pads made we swap to reusable. I've found them amazing and will never go back to disposable ones! I can never trust disposable ones not to fuck about with them and end up itching again.

Does the same to me. It makes me feel really angry. That Always must hate women because we are so disgusting with our dirty periodness. It does feel very anti women.

I had the same with these pads. I don't know what sort of chemicals they add, it seems daft.
Sadly it's set up a permanent allergic reaction and I can't now use any pads with chemicals at all. I've yet to find a brand that doesn't set of my reaction.

Once when we were on holiday DH bought me some from a village shop as it was late and night -they had nothing else, and I could smell them, unopened, from across the room as he put the bag down! No way were they going near me. I made do with doubled up knickers until the morning.. I can’t use Always at all though, they make me itch. Why do they need a sensitive one ? Surely all pads should be suitable for sensitive skin ? I use body form or organic ones. I’ve been trying TOTM, a Welsh brand that comes by post, they don’t make me itch, all organic, and I use washables to sleep in.

It does seem a very counter intuitive move on behalf of Always if so many of us suffer from their products and no longer use them!

Another vote for Natracare here. Waitrose sell them and health food shops.

Lilletts are also OK and Boots do 2 gentle brands, Cottons and Kind Organic. The kind ones are weird - they smell a bit like hamster cage sawdust. I won’t be buying them again for this reason.

I switched to a cup a few years ago, but can't manage it when l have a migraine, so I've recently bought washable pads as well. So much better. It's not just the scented disposables that irritate my skin, it's the weird absorbent gel stuff inside - I can only assume it lets some kind of chemical out when it gets damp! Horrid stuff. So glad I no longer have to deal with monthly cystitis/thrush. Cloth pads are the way to go.

This is about the fifty billionth thread about this...one wonders if Always actually have staff who monitor social media & websites like this?

I do use their Infinity ones still, but I also use Naturacare - I’d use them exclusively if they had wings.

Can those using reuseables give some recommendations?

I just looked at the Charlie ones, but I’m not sure about those as they’re polyester/nylon.

I don’t want the fleece ones either. Cotton or bamboo I guess...

Sorry, iPad ‘helping’ 🙄.

...if they had BETTER wings...

I use body form. Always used to use always but the are disgusting now. Where do you get the reusable cotton ones?

I wrote to Always to complain about this and they basically told me I was the only one and their customer research showed that women were asking for the fragrance!

Here’s what they said but did go on to recommend their perfume free products:

Thanks for your email to Always. I'm glad you've got in touch regarding the perfuming of our Always products. Scent is a personal choice and I know that through consumer research, a lot of women do want their sanitary product with a scent.

I normally wear tampons but recently flew long haul and the only things I could find at the airport were always pads, so I got those.
Scented, they were awful omg. I couldn't not wear them as I was bleeding v heavily but the only thing I could do was go into the toilets every 30
Mins or so and pour some water over my bits and then dab dry. Helped a bit. The burning and swelling though omg!
By the time I landed at my destination my lips were basically fused together as one they were so swollen! Never again! I also had a couple of bleeding pad sores - that was despite regular changing and washing as detailed above. I have never used a scented product down there before or since.
Complain OP I wish I had.

Another vote for natracare for their pads and tampons. I love their long winged version. I hate the thought of having anything with so many awful chemicals on and in such an incredibly sensitive area.

I buy my pads from home bargains or the pound shop, only decent ones i can find that arent scented and have decent absorbency and the night time ones arent super expensive.

I also switched from Always following a reaction so bad the GP said she could feel the heat off me when her gloves hand was 3 inches away (ouch). I now only use reusable and they are not only much much more comfortable but they are also giving me a smug feeling

I get mine from Luxury Moon and I like bamboo velour ones best. I was worried about the smell but it has been a revelation to me that 99% of the smell I encountered with Always et al was because of their weirdy chemicals and scent. Reusables don’t smell (well obviously if you leave them on too long etc but nothing like the smell from just normal wear of disposals).

I hate Always (like lots of others on here, I’d been loyal to them for years before they brought in the scent). I genuinely think that the scented pads have given me thrush about 4 times. Switched to Bodyform- no issues since. I actually had to use Always last month because I was caught short- this reminded me how rank they are!!

Perfumed sanpro is such a bad idea. I shudder every time is is mentioned on here Your poor foofs.

Joking aside it does make you wonder if they are in cahoots with the thrush medication manufacturers. You can just imagine them together on the golf course 😁

Always are gross. I hate them. I use.bodyform.now and they are great. Hope they stay happily scent free

Ldll own brand 55p has no perfume and like the ones in the 90s

I buy Sainsbury’s and co-op own brand, about a £1 a pack with wings and no scent! Switch to own brand and you’ll be fine, hope you feel better soon.

I switched to Always sensitive after accidentally buying scented pads. I was wearing one for half a day and it took a week for the itching to go away. I am currently using the remains of the pack as moth repellents in our clothing drawers. Seem to work quite well for that.

Another changer to reusable here. I got mine from HonourYourFlow and have the organic cotton velour ones. I suffer with Lichen Sclerosus and these have made me so much more comfortable than the disposable ones. Not cheap to buy initially, but then I don't have to buy more.

I once wrote and complained about this very issue. I was just trying (and failed) to find the correspondence, but it basically said that the perfume was locked in the towel and so couldn't have been the cause of my discomfort. And that the reason they started perfuming towels was that apparently it was high on the list of what consumers wanted. Not this one, though, I stopped buying them!

I used to use always too probably since I first got periods. When they changed to scented it took me a few months to cop on that my recurrent thrush (something I've never had before or since) was from them! Changed to bodyform and immediately the cycle was broken. Dreadful dreadful things!

Co op own brand are non scented