The period is, that’s in the nature of things, a bloody affair. In order to catch this and keep it out of the eyes of others, the menstruating person usually uses one of the countless feminine hygiene products in the range – tampon, menstrual cup, period underwear or the good old panty liner. The latter is considered old-fashioned, but many women still don’t want to do without it. Better safe than sorry. Ökotest has looked at whether pads and panty liners really hold up as tightly as they promise.
The more traditional period products have a problem. The problem isn’t that they don’t work properly, because they do. But they are bad for the environment. According to the erdbeerwoche.com portal, disposable products are among the types of waste that pollute the world’s beaches the most. Above all, the so-called superabsorbents, i.e. the plastic beads that prevent the blood from running somewhere where you don’t want it, harm nature. And yet a survey by Statista showed that only a quarter of users would be willing to switch to more sustainable products such as menstrual cups or cloth pads.
The solution? The products must become more environmentally friendly. Some providers are already working on it and offer a mix of environmentally friendly and still absorbent. However, there is still a lot of catching up to do with ultra bandages. In this area, the more sustainable products often cannot keep up, for example they don’t keep you dry as well. So Naty of all people with their “Eco at Naty sanitary pads” provided the worst ultra pad in the test, the result is only “sufficient”. But there are also “good” organic products. In the area of ultra-binding, these include the “Natracare” pads from Bodywise (each 29 cents, grade 1.8). These also do without halogenated organic compounds, which are often found in traditional products and usually get into the pad via the bleach.
The bottom line is that many products perform well in the test. Four of the tested panty liners were rated “very good”, two of them even with the top grade of 1.0. These include the inexpensive “Jessa panty liners” from DM. The worst panty liners, which is gratifying, are rated “satisfactory” by Ökotest. And the test results for the ultra bandages are also impressive. The majority convinces with a “good” or “very good” performance. Even with these, cheap ones can keep up with branded pads. Penny’s “Be She Ultra Pads” are among the best with a rating of 1.4 and, at a price of 4 cents per pad, cost just a third as much as the same graded “Always” (13 cents).
You can find the entire test for a fee on test.de.
