....A Pretendy FAQ....
(Since I've never actually been asked most of these questions)

Click on a particular heading, or just scroll down to read them all

To be honest I thought it was gross when I first heard of it too.... then I started thinking about it, and changed my mind.

"Yes, but  Civilised folk don't do that any more...it's unclean"
Do you carry a hanky?  or use a tissue?
Would/do you use cloth nappies or disposable ones?
I find it amazing how many people save their snot up in a little piece of cloth, put it in their pocket, re-use it over and over again, and then wash the rest of their clothes with it.......  *shudder*  I find that unclean!

But yes, civilised folk do use them... all over the world!  and no, its not unclean.  How about cloth nappies.. I think that baby poo is way more revolting than a bit of blood!  And what about underpants, etc. that gets the occasional blood leakage onto it, would you throw them out or wash them and reuse them?  Its really no different.  And as a friend of mine points out (She is a nurse), all hospital gowns, sheets etc. that get blood on them and are washed and reused.

Think about it logically.... once a month you loose a bit of blood....It comes from your body, and you'll do that month after month for year after year.  Does it seem a bit silly to buy plasticy/papery things to collect that to throw away....and be all icked out by it?  Or use a reusable product?

"ok... so are they better for the Environment and all that?"
I forget the statistics, but an enormous amount of rubbish in Landfill is made up of Sanitary pads and babies nappies.  I think I heard that the average women goes through something like 6 shopping trolleys full of sanitary products over their lifetime.  If you think of how many women you know, each having 6 trolley's worth of products - that's an awful lot of space that is taking up in a landfull.  Cloth pads are reusable, so rather than throwing about 20-30 or more pads away each month, your supply of around 10 pads will last you around 5 years, perhaps up to about 10 years.

"Cheaper? how can they be cheaper when they cost so much"
Obviously buying or making cloth pads requires you to spend some money to begin with (Unless you use material you have lying around), but it won't take long before your reusable pads have paid for themselves.  Personally, I spent about $30 on material to make my first lot.  But I made about 15 pads from that $30, and I bought expensive material because I wanted only purple pads so I bought my fabrics whatever the cost.  I used those for 6 years until I decided that they were looking ratty and gave them an overhaul - but I actually kept the core from most of them, just sprucing them up with a new top and bottom layer.  So for less than I'd spend a year on disposable products, I got at least 6 years life from my pads, and some are still continuing on with plenty of life left (in whole or revamped form)

You can make them out of fancy expensive fabrics like hemp and colourful flannels with fine corduroy backing and a waterproof layer.... or you can cut up some old bath towels and flannel sheets (or go second hand shopping) for a cheaper option.  If you consider that an average of 2 packets of (18) pads per month... at an average of about $3 per pack (if you buy cheap ones).. works out to cost you more than $70 a year.  That money could buy a reasonable selection of bought pads that should last you several years.  When they are too old to use, you can throw them away (or compost them), knowing the fabric will break down quicker than a disposable pad.

"But washing it out each time... that's a fair bit of effort...."
Ok, yes... I am not going to lie.. there is more work involved than throwing your disposable pad in the bin, but really.....isn't it worth it?

Trust me, I'm one of the laziest people in the universe!  and I manage it.  We are only talking a comitment of, say 10 mins a month to rinse out your pads before you put them in the washing machine.  Some people don't even do that and wash them as is..... and some people hand wash (which is more effort and I personally can't be bothered handwashing).. some women pop them on the shower floor with them and give them a bit of a stomp to rinse them off before putting them in the washing machine.  You can wash them with any load of washing, so you don't have to wash them on their own.  There is hardly any effort involved at all if you just save them all up to the end of your period and put them in the washing machine.  At the very least the added "effort" is tossing them in a bucket of water beside the toilet and throwing the contents into a washing machine after a few days.  See - easy!

When I was using disposables I'd wrap them into little mummified bundles (so nobody would know what they were?!?) and put them in the bin - quite a time consuming process sometimes..... it's much quicker putting the used pad in the bucket of water.  You would probably find that added up those seconds of mummifying each of your disposables,  would take care of the time it takes to put the pads in a soaking bucket and dumping the cloth pads in the washing machine.  So I don't think you'd find overall it makes that much difference time/effort wise... and you won't use as much toilet paper ;)  (You could further this by using cloth wipes to clean up, rather than toilet paper -but I don't want to scare you off just yet!)

"So how do I wash them then?"
There are several ways to go about cleaning them, it depends on what you prefer.  so I've made a page of this on its own...  Washing Cloth Pads

"Won't they get stained and smelly?"
Obviously a white or light coloured pad is going to be more prone to staining than a darker coloured pad.  Synthetics (eg microfleece, suedecloth) should not stain.  So use a darker colour, dark red (well it's the obvious colour isn't it ;)) or a highly patterned fabric if you are concerned about staining...  The way you wash your pads will also help prevent staining, or you can deal with staining if it happens.

As for smell...If you don't leave them lying around in a bucket of water too long, they shouldn't get smelly.  A bucket of water with a few blood soaked pads in it is not going to be the most hygenic of places, so if you do leave them sitting in a bucket of water for a few days, they start to smell a little (just as a normal disposable pad would if you just left it sitting there).  Rinsing them out before you leave them to soak will reduce this, as will putting some disinfectant in the water, as will simply not leaving pads soaking for days on end.  Changing the water after a day or two helps stop them getting smelly.  As with a disposable pad, if you wear it all day it can have an odour (though some women find its less of a problem with cloth) so change them as regularly as you would a disposable pad, rinse them out within a day and you'll have no smell.  The washed pads should have no smell at all.

"Ahhh... but do they actually work?"
That's the main thing I wanted to know...I must admit, I was doubtful...So I wanted to test them before I actually used them.  So, I made 2 to test out.  They were 2 layers flannelette with polyester backing in the "Glad rags" style envelope type thing with 2 insers made of 2 layer of towelling.  I tried pouring water onto the pad to see how it absorbed liquid compared to a regular pad.  My cloth pads took about 5-6 tablespoons of water (over several hours) without leaking through, The (cheap brand) disposable of the same thickness took about 1-2 before it would have leaked (without the plastic liner to prevent that).  I recently redid that test with an waterproof backed pad with 2 layers of hemp.  I only poured 30mls of water into it, but even after several hours (and then overnight) there was not only no leaking, but the stitching lines also didn't wick.  So it could have coped with plenty more liquid!

In a normal cycle, the average menstrual blood loss is apparently 30-40mls (See my page on that though)... Either way, my 30ml test shows that a cloth pad (like that one I used in the test) could absorb a whole days flow for most women  (you are supposed to change them every 4 hours or so for hygiene though). Materials like hemp are generally more absorbent than the paper they use in disposable pads of the same thickness (particularly the cheaper kind), but the ultra thin pads use more absorbent materials than the standard disposables (like the super absorbent crystals found in nappies), so they would absorb more compared to a cloth pad of the same thickness.

In actual wearing, I have found that a pad with a polyester bottom layer is preferable (Better yet, something 100% waterproof), as this prevents leakage and will help to distribute the flow. Without it I found the blood soaked through in the one spot.  I assume the blood hits the waterproof layer then spreads out along it, which means more of the core gets a chance to soak up more liquid.   The more layers in the pad the more it will absorb before leaking through to you undies if you don't have waterproofing (obviously).  Although a flannel cover looks and feels nicer, I find plain towelling, velour or anything with a high pile absorbs moisture quicker so feels dryer. Fleece topped pads feel drier still as they let moisture through but not back out again.  Then fancy fabrics like velour just feel lush as well as dry!

Depending on how they are made, they can be bulkier than disposable pads (Particularly if you are used to "ultra thin" pads), but the more layers the pad has, the more absorbent it will be.  This is why hemp is used a lot, as it is thin yet absorbent.  In my pads I try to compress the layers of towelling down by sewing lines up and down it, which ends up being about the same thickness as just 1 layer of towelling (though stiffer).  Which means a super absorbent pad can be only half a cm thick (Around the same as a regular disposable if not thinner)

"What about while I am out?"
I suggest you start off by wearing them around the house until you get comfortable with them, and using regular  disposable pads while out..  Then as you become confident that they will work just as well, or better than a disposable pad, you can start wearing them out.  You can wear a disposable under a cloth pad while trying it out if you like.  Depending on how you make them, or the ones you buy... the ones with wings can be folded up into a parcel and wrapped up to be taken home if you need to change while you are out.  Normal pads can be folded in half (soiled side in) and wrapped up.  I'd suggest taking a "ziplock" bag, or something specially made (Sometimes called a "wetbag") with you to put any soiled pads into.  Even a PVC pencil case - something that isnt going to stain, smell or leak.  Some people like one with 2 compartments so they can carry a clean and a soiled pad at the same time.

Another option might be to make a panty liner from 1 layer of toweling (Or the scraps from making your pads) and place one of these ontop of the pad, so when you need to change your pad, you might be able to just take that liner off and wrap it up and bring it home.  It would be smaller than a whole pad, so easier to put in your pocket or bag, and would then give you a little longer before you had to change the whole pad if you felt funny about changing them in public.  Some pad styles have a waterproofed base with lighter absorbency inserts that sit on top of this, and these likewise make carrying pads around easier, as the inserts are usually smaller.

To be honest, before I got my cup,  if I was going out where I'll be needing to change a pad and can't do so discretely, or if worried about leaking, I'd actually fold up a piece of toilet paper into a long finger thickness roll, and wear this in my labia to catch most of the blood first, then just let this drop into the toilet and either make another one, or just let my pad do the rest.  I make this type of thing in flannel and towelling too as a reusable thing for heavy days, and call it an "ini-pad" :)  You can actually buy disposable ones I recently discovered, called an "inter-labial pad".

"How practical are they really?"
If you are used to wearing tampons or ultra thin pads, then you prabably won't like these.  They are more bulky than an ultra thin pad, but can be around the same thickness as a regular pad (Although you can make them however you like, but it's pointless if they aren't thick enough to work).  Disposable pads have a layer of plastic on the underside to prevent any liquid seeping through - some cloth pads won't have this, some will have a waterproof layer.  You may not need waterproofing, depending on your flow, and how thick the pad is (The non-waterproofed pads tend to be a bit thicker to allow for this.  If you are concerned (or have a heavy flow), you can buy waterproofed pads, or make a liner of polyester, nylon or waterproof material oto sew onto the underside of the pad, or to slip between your pad and your underpants as extra protection.  Depending on the type of pads you are used to, these might not seem as dry on top as the disposable pads you are used to.  Many disposable pads on the market are designed to absorb the liquid leaving the surface (close to) dry.  Your cloth pads will not be as dry as those, but they are softer against the skin, and apart from the extra bulk some may have, they don't feel like you are wearing them at all.  I find towelling or velour feels dryer than flannel or flat cottons, and polar/microfleece feels even dryer.  But you can experiment with what you like.

"Heath benefits?"
Well I switched for the environment... but some women choose cloth because they are allergic to the plastics and chemicals in disposables.  Interestingly lots of Women I have spoken to have found (like me) that their periods got lighter when using cloth.  I used to occasionally get little blood clot things with my period, and I've had only a couple of these since going to cloth (and only when using synthetic topped pads interestingly enough).  I also rarely get cramps (I can't remember having any at all since going to cloth) and I believe my period has become lighter.  I don't know if there is a physical reason for this, or a more psychological one... either way - I'm happy!

Very recently I realised that I'd also always had a really painful ache in my (outer) labia when I had my period, But I haven't had it in years....  I'd always assumed it was a part of menstruation (since it only happened when I had my period).  But it occured to me that since I haven't had it in years it must not have been, then I realised I hadn't had it since switching to cloth!  I called mum to see if she had it too..... yes she did, but only some months.... which she then realised must relate to which brands she was using.  So it would seem that its the disposables causing the pain.  GAH  Something in my disposable pads had been making me ache for years and I never knew!

Some women find that they have fewer problems with thrush from using cloth.  I've never had a problem with that so I can't comment on that aspect.  Though being a more breathable pad it allows airflow which means you aren't so hot and damp, which contibutes to things like thrush (which thrives in hot moist conditions)

Some women dislike using any synthetics in their pads because they say it stops them being breathable..... my idea of a breathable pad is one that allows a bit of air flow... Even with a 100% waterproof (non-breathable) liner inside, you are still getting a good few mm (or cm) of cotton/hemp or other breathable fabric inbetween which will allow some air flow to happen.  Unlike many disposable pads which are topped with a plastic layer and have plastic in the sides too.  A fleece or other synthetic top will generally allow air flow too (being open weave enough to allow liquid through).  However some women choose cloth pads as they can have natural fabrics aganst their skin and for that reason don't like any synthetics - which is fair enough.

How many will I need?
You would obviously need more than 1 cloth pad for the duration of your period.  They say you need around 6-12 pads... but it depends on whether you want to wash them as you go, or just wash them all at the end, how heavy your periods are, how ong you feel comfortable wearing the pad, if it's waterproofed or not, and how heavy your flow is.

It is generally recommended to change your cloth pad as often as you would change a disposable pad for hygene reasons (Every 3-4 hours), but you could get away with 1-2 pads a day if your flow is light and your pad is sufficiently absorbent/waterproofed....or you could go through 6 pads a day if your flow is heavier and you like to have clean pads as much as possible.  Some women like to change their pad every time they go to the toilet (a pad can feel a bit cold and wet in the brief time it's been away from your body - so it is nice to put a fresh pad on).... and that of course depends on how often you go to the toilet ;)  So its really up to you, but you can use that as a guide to find out how many you would need.  Personally I think about 20-30 of different shapes/lengths is a good number, as it gives you plenty of pads if you can't or don't want to wash frequently - plus the more pads you have, the less wear and tear they have, so they will last longer..  Without having the per pad cost that disposables have, you might find you like to change pads more often just because you can.

"I'm confused... where do I start.....what  I buy?"
Not every pad suits every woman.... our needs are varied and so are the pad choices, but I have a whole page specifically on this topic.

See the Pad Suggestions page