Regular Menstrual Pad

Disposable pads also use plastics, which block airflow to your vagina, and not surprisingly, can encourage a painful rash.

Disposables also use synthetic fibers like rayon, which are super-absorbent, but will also absorb all the moisture in your vagina, increasing your chances of severe pain and infections especially if you are wearing one for hours, all day, all week.

If the health reasons don’t sway you, maybe the numbers will be more convincing. Granted, reusables have a larger initial cost, but they last much, much longer. With proper care, cloth pads can last for years. Compare this to the disposable that has a lifespan of a few hours before it’s thrown away, forcing you to buy more and more all of them ending up in a landfill.

You will help save the environment

Switching to reusables is a striking example of how seemingly small personal choices can have a tremendous positive impact on our environment. It’s estimated that nearly 20 billion (billion!) pads and tampons are discarded each year in North America alone. The plastics in a pad will take hundreds of years to decompose. The process of manufacturing these disposables also pollutes our waterways, air and animal habitats. Switching to reusables can make a difference.