Do You Need to Wear a Pad with Period Pants?

No, you don't need to wear a pad with period pants but you may choose to do so for various reasons. With a cotton layer next to your skin, followed by absorbent layers, then a waterproof barrier you are fully protected from leaks! On Cheeky pants, these layers extend beyond the gusset from the front to the back waistband.

By wearing the correct absorbency pants to match your flow and changing in line with this, you can wear our periods pants on their own. In saying that however, there may be some circumstances where it would be appropriate to wear a pad with period pants:

• if you suffer with abnormally heavy periods or endometriosis and need to double up
• if you work LONG shifts and will have limited opportunities to change
• you're a bit lazy and don't want to change your pants or just want that fresh knicker feeling

If you suffer with abnormally heavy periods, menorrhagia or endometriosis

If you fall into this category, chances are you struggle to manage your blood loss during your menstrual cycle using tampons or pads.

For many women, this means bleeding through a maxi sanitary pad in an hour. Or doubling up on period protection, wearing both pads and tampons, or double maxi pads. Some women report simply not being able to leave the house if they're on their period.

Wearing period underwear plus a pad can be literally life changing if you're in this situation as reusable products are SO much more absorbent.

On days where my flow is flooding or when changing out and about would be difficult, I wear a bamboo pad in my washable pants for extra protection during the first half of the day. I remove this at lunchtime and carry on in the reusable pants alone.

I carry a small wetbag with me to store the used pads. The wetbag holds in any smells and the pad holds any blood. No mess, no fuss just ready to rinse in cold water, soak and wash when I get home!

If you'd like to know more about this, our customers just helped us to complete a brilliant series of blogposts, starting with 'Endometriosis and Heavy Periods: Can reusable period products help?' which might be of interest.

If you work long hours or shifts

Most regular flow period pants will absorb approximately two tampons worth of blood.

That means on my lighter flow days I can wear my light to moderate flow pants from morning to the evening, changing into a fresh pair for bed.

If you work long shifts and have light to moderate flow our heavy flow pants can last you upwards of 12 hours if needed.

On heavy days - picture perimenopausal flooding - I wear our heavy flow Feeling Fearless or Feeling Cosy and change lunchtime, early evening and for bed, averaging about 5hrs in the pants. If you work shifts and that would be tricky for you, wearing a reusable pad plus period pants is a brilliant option.

"Excellent products. I really love these products. The pads and pants are absolutely amazing, I'll never go back to disposables. Prices are fair and they often do discounts and multibuys making products more affordable." Natasha, July '22 trustpilot

You're a bit lazy and don't want to change your pants or just want that fresh knicker feeling

Helen, our founder falls into this category. Her periods aren't particularly heavy but she often wears a panty liner with a pair of period pants which she'll remove at lunchtime so she feels fresh and clean! She reckons it cuts down on washing too. Win, win!

Is it OK to wear period pants all day?

Yes, it's absolutely fine to wear period pants all day as long as you aren't getting leaks. However most people will want to change every 6 to 8 hours roughly on regular flow days, depending on the absorbency level of the period pants. Or wear a reusable pad which you can remove at lunchtime for that 'fresh knicker' feeling.

As always, if you've got questions or want to know how to wash period underwear, have a browse of all our blogs! You may enjoy How often should you change period pants?

For any further questions on sizing etc, please do drop the team a line or use the online chat function. The team all use the products themselves, nothing is TMI and we all love to overshare based on our own experiences...

About the Author:  Kirstin Scriven is part of the Customer Experience team at Cheeky Wipes, which since 2008 has been selling the original reusable wipes kit. She is mum to 3 and loves the forest, the sea and the hills!

Along with the rest of our crack team, she spends most days talking about poo, pee and periods and loves a chance to overshare. The business was recognised with a Queens Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development in 2021, celebrating their hard work over the last 13 years.