Tips for feminine hygiene products for every woman

Certified Wellness Consultant Britlynn Ward gives some of her top tips for feminine hygiene products so that you know what to look out for!

Heavy flows, painful cramping, headaches, mood swings… what every young woman is taught to think is normal with her monthly cycle. Indeed, every individual woman’s cycle is unique to her body’s physiology, genetics, emotional balances and constitution.

However, we have to hold ourselves responsible to listen to our bodies, and tune into where we can make lifestyle, dietary or health changes so that our monthly cycles less of a bloody hell (literally). Making decisions about our feminine hygiene products can be the difference between a bed-ridden, crippling period and a not so ‘murder everyone in sight’, mildly survivable period.

Here are some tips for feminine hygiene products to keep in mind:

Check ingredients

How often do we ingredient check our food products and restaurant meals? How often do we ingredient check our tampons and pads? It’s actually nearly impossible to ingredient check your feminine hygiene products unless the company markets them on the box. Tampons, pads, and cups are under no regulation to list their ingredients as they are outside of the Food and Drug Administration (unlike our organic quinoa and gluten free certified bread) and are categorized as medical devices.

Because of this, hundreds of ingredients such as CHLORINE, BLEACH, PESTICIDES, FRAGRANCES sneak their way into your most vulnerable body parts! The uterus contains the body’s most sensitive mucosal membrane, making it highly susceptible to absorption of anything in close proximity. Most of these frightening ingredients are common for people to avoid in their food, water and laundry detergents, yet most of us don’t think twice about our pads and tampons.

Know what the ingredients do!

Many additives and ingredients that are commonly used for the bleaching, sanitizing, and coating of our feminine hygiene products have studies linking to negative side effects. Many added fragrances, for example, are endocrine disruptors, meaning they block necessary hormone transportation and secretions, so that our already fluctuating hormones are further inhibited from getting us back to our normal, calm homeostasis of hormonal, physical and emotional balance. Heavy bleeding, headaches and abdominal pain can be symptoms of hormonal disruptions or imbalances can be caused by these ‘secret ingredients’.

Thus, one of the main tips for feminine hygiene products is to hunt down the product companies that choose to be transparent about their manufacturing so you can make an informed decision on what you put in your body.

Below, I’m going to share with you the ingredients that should be advertised on the packaging of any of your feminine hygiene products, be it tampons to sensitive washes. If it doesn’t mention any of the following, it more than likely contains one of the toxic ‘secret ingredients’.

• 100% ORGANIC COTTON
• POLYESTER FREE
• BPA FREE PLASTIC
• PESTICIDE FREE
• FRAGRANCE FREE
• NON-GMO

AND it’s an even bigger successful find if the company also advertises what they are NOT made with: (AVOID THE FOLLOWING INGREDIENTS)

• CHLORINE
• DIOXINS
• CHLOROFORM
• PESTICIDES
• FRAGRANCE
• RAYON
• BLEACH
• SYNTHETIC FIBERS
• PETROCHEMICAL ADDITIVES
• ADHESIVE CHEMICALS IN PADS
• PARABENS IN WIPES AND BODY WASHES
• DYES
• TRICLOSAN
• ACETONE
• POLYESTER
• STYRENE

Thankfully, word is getting around and new companies are releasing organic cotton pads and tampons on the shelves of major health and beauty stores everywhere like Target, Sprouts, CVS and more. Surprisingly enough, organic tampons and pads are actually equally as affordable as our leading generic products, which hopefully reminds you how much time and well-being painful periods cost us.

Now that you’ve learned about some of our tips for feminine hygiene products, you can make an educated decision on what to buy and know exactly what to look out for, as well as what some of these secret ingredients do!

If you have any other questions with regards to feminine health in general, don’t hesitate to reach out and book a free introductory video session with Britlynn!