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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To envy young girls their period pants when I remember the hammocks and belts ...?

115 replies

SocialConnection · 07/01/2022 12:24

Isn't it great how much more choice there is, and how much more discreet products are now?

I hit Meno before mooncups and period pants were a thing, so they are totally next generation. I'd have loved them.

My mum gave me a ghastly belt with enormous cotton wool hammocks ('bunnies') and safety pins when I started, which I didn't realise were already obsolete - she'd had an early hysterectomy so wasn't aware of the stick on variety! 😂

My grandmother muttered about 'rags' having to be washed every month

Then I discovered Dr White's bricks with the sticky strips.

Then I went over to the Vespre brand which came ready bunched into that weird curvy shape towels take on after a bit of wear - I liked those.

It wasn't til I was 18 that I first tried tampons - I was already at uni and for some reason a bit nervous of them. All those toxic shock syndrome warnings in Jackie magazine. But there was a sense of 'If I can't use these am ever going to lose my virginity??'

I remember reading an article about an ancient Egyptian mummy of a young girl who'd been buried with a supply of what were quite clearly tampons ready to take into the next world. They're nothing new.

These days, done with all that, it's just the slimmiest slim little liners I can find.

But what's with the PERFUME??

OP posts:
ToddlingForwards · 07/01/2022 12:27

I remember reading about those pads and belt in a book (maybe Judy Bloom) and being terrified! Luckily my mum presented me with the stick on sort Grin. But yes, period pants are absolutely transformational. They do light flow/everyday which you can use in place of the little liners too.

Alayalaya · 07/01/2022 12:30

Mooncups have been available for at least 20 years so aren’t exactly new.

gamerchick · 07/01/2022 12:30

Yeah the flowery stink that comes with a lot of them now. Bloody awful thrush inducing things.

Aldis are unscented up to now.

EishetChayil · 07/01/2022 12:31

At least you didn't have to put up with being called a bleeder or a person who menstruates in the adverts for your sannies!

Hugasauras · 07/01/2022 12:31

I remember the Judy Bloom bit too! Period pants are amazing. I'm glad there will be so much choice for DD when she grows up, and that people talk about periods a lot more. No one ever spoke about them when I was a kid. Even my mum, who was pretty good at that kind of stuff, wasn't massively forthcoming.

Hugasauras · 07/01/2022 12:32

And yes the scented ones are ghastly. I switched to reusable pads which are so much comfier and nicer.

ArblemarzipanTFruitcake · 07/01/2022 12:33

I remember pre-wings when the towels would just bunch up - awful. Thankfully I'm done with periods - the best products in the world couldn't stop the pain and misery of mine.

Ozgirl75 · 07/01/2022 12:34

Yes it’s amazing! I don’t have periods as I’m on the Implanon but at least I know that when I eventually come off it I won’t have to go back to pads or tampons. Tampons used to make period cramps worse, I didn’t mind pads but even at the time I felt like it was so wasteful just throwing all this plastic waste away.

cobblers123 · 07/01/2022 12:34

Yes, I wore the belt and Dr Whites mattresses back about 1968, we all did at school. Absolutely horrible things and due to the material, it was quite easy for them to stick to you making them really uncomfortable.

It was also difficult carrying spares in your satchel when at school, usually wrapped up in a paper bag and wedged in with your books and other school stuff.

Also the hideous incinerators in the toilets that you could smell in the corridors if someone used it to burn a used towel.

Thank god those days have long gone Hmm

legalseagull · 07/01/2022 12:40

I'm so glad period pants exist. I now use them and I'm glad my daughter will have them when the time comes. I remember the horror or giant pads that felt like a loaf of bread stuffed in your knickers. Plus for some reason they always ripped your pubes out when you took them off Grin

thebabessavedme · 07/01/2022 12:42

we used to turn on the incinerators in the loos to mask the smell of our fags Grin agree though, I'm so pleased things have moved on for young women now, not so much 'the curse' these days.

MazzleDazzle · 07/01/2022 12:42

I love my period pants! Life changing. I cringe at the thought if I have to use a tampon now and they never really used to bother me.

Not convinced a mooncup or period pants would be suitable for my DD. At least she has the luxury of super slim pads though!

As a teen Always were way out of our price range, so my DM used to buy the awful thick ones instead. Try stashing one of those up your sleeve at school!

We’re in Scotland, so schools have supplies of pads/tampons in toilets - I remember having to go and ask the school nurse if I was caught short. Blush

In lockdown, I was so impressed that my DD’s school left crates of jotters, paper, stationery and tampons/pads by the front door for people to help themselves to.

ancientgran · 07/01/2022 12:43

@EishetChayil

At least you didn't have to put up with being called a bleeder or a person who menstruates in the adverts for your sannies!
I don't think they were advertised when I was young. I can remember being sent to the chemist with a note and a brown parcel was produced from under the counter. You wouldn't want that sort of thing on display! Oh the horror. The 50s were a very different place.
GorgeousGeorgiana · 07/01/2022 12:45

Yanbu - I love period pants. I still remember (and used) Dr Whites! They were the ones I our school vending machines, so I needed to use those occasionally

ancientgran · 07/01/2022 12:46

@Hugasauras

I remember the Judy Bloom bit too! Period pants are amazing. I'm glad there will be so much choice for DD when she grows up, and that people talk about periods a lot more. No one ever spoke about them when I was a kid. Even my mum, who was pretty good at that kind of stuff, wasn't massively forthcoming.
I always wonder about period pants. Do you wear them all day? Don't you need to change during the day?

Where I grew up periods were referred to as "having the decorators in." I found that very puzzling as a child.

MazzleDazzle · 07/01/2022 12:47

I wear one pair of period pants all day and change into a fresh pair for bed. On heavier days I might change as soon as I get in from work. I’ve never leaked. They’re so comfy I’d happily wear them everyday.

DobbyTheHouseElk · 07/01/2022 12:49

My DM thought I was lucky that I didn’t have to use the belt contraption. Although I remember them being sold in shops.

I had the Dr whites cotton wool and paper stick on pads which my DM though was total luxury. Then I progressed to the ultra thins and now to reusables.

I haven’t tried the pants, but they sound revolutionary.

Hugasauras · 07/01/2022 12:49

It depends on your flow and how absorbent the pants are. I have probably average flow I would say and can wear a good absorbency pair from morning until standard kind of work finishing time, and then I'll change into another pair. Sometimes I might wear a reusable pad on top for the first part of the day and then remove that and just have the pants on. And I can wear the pants on their own overnight too. I find them really comfy.

JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue · 07/01/2022 12:52

I remember primary school showed us the belt/hammock version during our first Sex Ed talk. Fortunately DM worked for a well known chemist, so she kitted me out with the new stick-on versions instead.

I wish that either washable pads, or period pants, had been around when I was younger. I'd have bought like mad. Now I'm early fifties and cannot justify the expense, even though my body stiil has the audacity to produce a heavy period every three months or so, I keep trying to convince myself that it'll be the last one ...

Justleaveitblankthen · 07/01/2022 12:53

Did anyone else's female rellies call it "Being unwell"? Grin Bless my DM, mortified if I ever used the word "Period."

DPotter · 07/01/2022 12:58

By back when, I remember buying the bunnies from our local haberdasher, like a pp said, all very discretely. I remember being mortified that the paper bag they were in wasn't really big enough and you could see the top third or of the pack. We didn't have a chemist near us and the local spar shop didn't stock san-pro at all.

Aprilx · 07/01/2022 13:02

I am 51, too young for the belt and hammock thing but I remember wings coming in as a new thing. My periods stopped a few years ago and so I have only recently heard of period pants and certainly never tried them. Don’t really understand how they work, sounds like a recipe for disaster to me!

Laiste · 07/01/2022 13:07

I remember in the 80s my nan (DMs mum)telling me i was lucky because she had to wear a ''sanitary belt'' in her day. I had NO idea what she was on about! and i didn't really want to ask

My other nan (DFs mum) was a bit horrified when she realised i was washing my hair while on my period. Again i was totally Confused

While still young and living at home my mother HATED me ever leaving a packet of Always or tampons in the bathroom. It was never said straight but i got the feeling it was all about not subjecting my father to the mere sight of the packaging Hmm

Re: period pants - researched them till i'm blue in the face and i think they aren't for me.
Moon cups - tried them and i didn't get on with them at all.

So for me it's still towels with and without wings and good old lillets. (tampax give me cramps these days). But it is great there's more choice and less secrecy.

LaBellina · 07/01/2022 13:09

I’m probably an exception but period pants last me about an hour before I need to change them. I recently discovered reusable organic cotton pads and bought a stash of them from Amazon. I hate all the unnecessary plastic waste that comes with using disposable ones.

MiloAndEddie · 07/01/2022 13:09

I am so glad things have changed for my DD. I’m only mid-30s but my mum wouldn’t talk to me about it all and I was mortified at the thought of having to ask her to buy pads for me.
So much choice now and period pants are fab. I wear them at night and get no leaks or anything and they are comfy and non-rustley