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Women's underwear gets an upgrade

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Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#31
post #30

This is actually a really good replacement for pads. They say their underwear can hold one to six teaspoons. There are five milliliters to a teaspoon, and according to Wikipedia, the average period produces one to six tablespoons total. There are three teaspoons to a tablespoon. So their underwear should be able to easily cope with one day's worth of flow, since it should be able to cope with half a period to an enti…

I think you neglected the factor that flow varies over the course of a period with a shape like sin(x) from x=0 to x=3.14. Or in other words it starts off slow, peaks, then peters out.

Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#32
post #30

This is actually a really good replacement for pads. They say their underwear can hold one to six teaspoons. There are five milliliters to a teaspoon, and according to Wikipedia, the average period produces one to six tablespoons total. There are three teaspoons to a tablespoon. So their underwear should be able to easily cope with one day's worth of flow, since it should be able to cope with half a period to an enti…

I think you neglected the factor that flow varies over the course of a period with a shape like sin(x) from x=0 to x=3.14. Or in other words it starts off slow, peaks, then peters out.

Being a woman, yes, I am entirely aware of that. Unless you have a single day where you're pushing out two tablespoons, though, which is very unlikely, my point still stands.

Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#34
post #29
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The moment [western] single-use pads/tampons became available they stopped using anything else Which is a shame, as it is not exactly ok for the environment. Same goes for diapers. Tons and tons of throw-away material every single day. Which is the reason my wife uses reusable pads and our (future) children will use reusable diapers. My wife has no problems with the pads whatsoever (not claiming no women will ever ha…

I have seen conflicting reports regarding the environmental impact of cloth vs disposable diapers. Cloth diapers have to be washed. They use water, detergent, etc. It isn't a clear "win" for the environment to forego disposable diapers. For me, I have a genetic disorder. Treating it conventionally is extremely expensive (~$100k or more annually, which grows the older -- and sicker -- that you get). I have found that…

I have seen conflicting reports regarding the environmental impact of cloth vs disposable diapers

Me too. At least a couple of studies mainly took into account the amount of energy used for production vs washing. That is basically nonsense as it discards the waste. So even if both came out equally regarding energy consumption (hereby properly considering the washing machines these days use way less energy and water, latter might even have been collected from rain) there is still waste left with one and not so much with the other. And plastic isn't exactly that easy to get rid of.

Also, I am somewhat skeptical of self-reported anecdata concerning "we do x and it causes no problems"

Which is exactly why I also pointed out that I do not take it for granted that it works for everyone. And obviously for you it doesn't work, at all. And I'm fine with that.

Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#36
There is a huge movement towards reusable menstrual products. I use a menstrual cup or reusable cloth pads (have done so for the last 5 years and wish they had been around for much longer). I hate plastic disposable products that make you feel like you are wearing a diaper (note: I cloth diaper my son as well) and that these products and their chemicals have been scientifically shown to cause you to bleed more or even contribute to some cramps and also with tampons TSS. Reusable products dont have these problems and last a long time so are much more cost effective even if steeply priced off the bat as they last longer. It is not gross at all to wash these things if you think your body is gross in this way then you have some other issues you need to probably deal with and likely they come from our culture's deep rooted taboos on the topic. Periods and such used to be celebrated in many cultures as a coming into adult hood, it was a rite of passage type of thing. Now it really is seen as shamefull or taboo to talk about it in some ways. There are many small companies and people who are seeing this problem time and time again and trying to deal with it and get rid of the taboos and help other people out with products that work and are better. These resuable pads they are working with in uganda (I am familiar with afripads which was helped to be created by lunapada a local to me but widely known reusable cloth pad company)really do actually have a positive impact - there are lots of other movements and stuff that does similar things in other african countries. I would totally wihtout thinking about it in an instant buy a product like this underwear, it is a really genius idea and I think this company will do well.

Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#38
I googled for stats on tampons vs. pads and according to a paper some 3/4 of all women prefer tampons anyway, so I'm not sure they actually need a replacement for pads? I'm amazed that almost everybody using the word "gross" in this thread seems to be a women. I thought if anything men would be the problem. While searching for the paper I actually found a lot of women calling pads disgusting which I though is a little harsh. I hope they're talking about the feeling rather than the blood? About the product itself I'm not sure what to think. It's patented tech so it's not all that helpful to women in poor countries and I'm not too happy about the language they're using either. They're kind of implying that all women have tried so far isn't sexy and now they fixed it. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm convinced the tech isn't the problem here (seems fairly obvious).

Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#39
post #30

This is actually a really good replacement for pads. They say their underwear can hold one to six teaspoons. There are five milliliters to a teaspoon, and according to Wikipedia, the average period produces one to six tablespoons total. There are three teaspoons to a tablespoon. So their underwear should be able to easily cope with one day's worth of flow, since it should be able to cope with half a period to an enti…

I think you neglected the factor that flow varies over the course of a period with a shape like sin(x) from x=0 to x=3.14. Or in other words it starts off slow, peaks, then peters out.

[deleted]

Re: Women's underwear gets an upgrade

#40

I googled for stats on tampons vs. pads and according to a paper some 3/4 of all women prefer tampons anyway, so I'm not sure they actually need a replacement for pads? I'm amazed that almost everybody using the word "gross" in this thread seems to be a women. I thought if anything men would be the problem. While searching for the paper I actually found a lot of women calling pads disgusting which I though is a littl…

Where did you read tampons are more common?

I found this which sounds like pads are used more: http://lipglossandabackpack.com/feminine-hygiene-around-the-...

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