Go with the flow: how period clothing went mainstream

Period underwear is branching out into leak-proof exercise clothes, swimsuits, sleepwear – even blankets. Is this finally the end of tampons and pads?I suppose everyone who has ever got their period has the same nightmare, though for most of us, it ’s come true. Mine happened a couple of years ago while reporting at a festival on New York’s Governors Island. It was August, hot and sticky, and I was wearing a white linen dress and thin cotton underwear. I was interviewing people all day. Later, a woman came up to me. I thought she wanted to speak about the festival. It turned out she had something else on her mind.“I brought you a bottle of water because I think you may have sat in something,” she said. Inside a portable toilet, I found a stain the size of a child’s football, the colour of rust and red grapes. I had got my period and hadn’t even noticed it until that dear woman saved me. It was the wo rst-case scenario, worthy of the “embarrassing story” section in a teen magazine, and yet I had been menstruating for 25 years. Who knows how long I had been walking around like that? I continue to be mortified by this story, and it’s a long way of saying that I should probably be someone who invests in period-wear.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Menstruation Women Life and style Society Psychology Retail industry Business UK news World news Health & wellbeing Source Type: news