If you wear pjs, you would always wear knickers underneath ...

[Ooopsadaisy]

wouldn't you? Surely?

Thrush is an internal infection isn't it? Why would air getting to your external genitalia have any effect on it?

but they tell you to not wear tight fitting knicks so wearign none would be the same....

no knickers under pjs here either, and another one who doesn't wash pjs daily either. having said that i only really wear pjs in the mornings when we have family staying over. i sleep naked as get too hot and bothered otherwise. can't be doing with pjs twisting all over the place in the night.

I do.

And I've never had thrush.

I don't wear pj bottoms to bed but I have to wear knickers otherwise I feel like I need to pee 20 times. Yes I am weird

Oooh, nooooooooo! [Kenneth Williams voice] Let the air circulate! Too skanky and closed-in otherwise.....

I could never even wear pyjamas to bed either, the waist just rides round, the seam goes up my crack - who in their right mind would want to be restricted by ANYTHING down there.

Mind you, I'm not a thong-wearer, so probably no surprise that I like my bits to all hang out in bed. So to speak.

One question - do you wear the same knickers that you've been wearing all day or put a fresh pair on for bed? And dear god, please tell me that if you have put a fresh pair on for bed that you don't wear them next day?????

And what if you have sex? Do you put the knickers back on under your PJ bottoms? seems like a right faff to me........

It just all seems too........prim and proper and prudish to wear knickers in bed. Very Victorian or somethingn.

I do wear knickers for the comfort factor but it is better to go bare, the 'breathing' thing is because thrush is an over population of candida which is a yeast I believe. It likes, ahem, warm, damp areas so air flow is a good way to discourage the problem.

The closest I can find to official advice to 'let your bits breathe' is this paragraph from NHS direct:

Tight-fitting clothing

Wearing tight-fitting clothing, such as tights, or using panty-liners, may increase your risk of developing thrush. However, the evidence to support this is still uncertain.

Which isn't exactly conclusive, and I'm not wearing tights to bed, just a pair of cotton knickers, which I can't believe makes that much difference to air flow under a thick duvet and a pair of pjs.

Sorry if I sound like I've got a bee in my bonnet but this question comes up a lot on MN and I'm fed up of being told I need to air my fanjo when I've never had thrush in my life. As for being prim, proper and prudish, it's just a comfort thing, I make no judgement on those who find it more comfortable to go without.

(As an aside which should probably be taken to the feminist boards - is the airing thing perhaps part of the socialisation that vaginas and vulvas are intrinsically yuck and need to be freshened and douched and generally cleaned and tidied up?)

this has made me laugh only the other day i was chatting to my friend about it. i do and feel really uncomfortable when i dont wear knickers under my pj's but she doesnt and was saying how weird i was for wearing them,
Her 3 year old came up to her to get her attention and she didnt answer cos we were still talking so he pulled on her pj waistband, she definatly was telling the truth iyswim !!

The world is a much divided place when it comes to knickers, then!

To all those concerned; yes, the knickers are clean ones and, no, I don't wear them again the next day.

Always simple cotton for nightimes.

I have never had thrush.

The reason for the thread is this:

I was discussing with a friend how many clothes we have versus how many you actually need. The conversation got around to how many pairs of knickers you get through, in say, a week. She said 7. I said 21. She asked me to explain why 21. I said:

"1 pair for each day, 1 pair for each day after an afternoon wash (I do quite a physical job and so shower after cycling home from work) and then 1 pair for under my pjs."

Hence the debate ......

I don't have a strong opinion.

Feel free to wear knickers under your nightwear, or ju nightwear and no knickers, or just knickers and no nightwear, or nothing at all in bed.

Everyone who says "oh you must do it this way or else the world will come to an end" needs to relax a little.

Trillian - I agree - that's why I asked the world of MN.

My friend was laughing at me for my "21 pairs" reasoning.

When the first few posts came back saying they would never wear knickers under pjs I was hiding away, choosing a new identity for a name change!

It seems I have uncovered a wide social divide than religion, politics and the wearing of Per Una clothing.

I don't wear anything in bed, but if I come downstairs in the morning in PJ-type 'slob clothes' I always put on knickers. Too much, um, toot-toot residual otherwise.

Course, it means that after I have a shower and get dressed properly I feel the need to get out another pair of clean knickers.

No knickers here, an ancestral trait going back at least two generations and now passed on to DD.

Should have added that we don't do PJs here. We generally shower before going to bed and when we get up, with birthday suits in between.

yes, knickers. doesn't feel right without. fresh ones every morning. pj gets washed every 3/4 days.

You mumsnetters who go to school in your pj's though - please tell me you wear knockers

knockers? What, fake ones that you strap on over your clothes?

No. Surely you'd get thrush?

Nope. Never had thrush in my life.

Toot-toot residual

I snorted my ginger beer everywhere at that and continued to do so every time it was mentioned.

'It just all seems too........prim and proper and prudish to wear knickers in bed. Very Victorian or somethingn.'

Most Victorian-era people didn't wear knickers at all.

Some people wear knickers to bed. So?

Others don't. So?