Disclosure: I was sent one pair of Wuka period pants free of charge, in order to write this review.
Last month I had my first completely no-waste period. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that I used a menstrual cup for the first time back in February. I wrote about my menstrual cup again earlier in the month as I’ve been getting on really well with it. However, I’d been looking for an alternative to disposable sanitary towels, as I personally don’t wish to wear my menstrual cup at night (there’s no reason why you can’t, though; I just don’t want to).
Wuka got in touch and asked me if I’d like to try their period pants. I had been considering period pants as an option as I’m a bit skeptical as to whether cloth sanitary towels would stay in place, and I’d quite like my white bedsheets to stay white! Period pants are generally around £25 per pair, though, so I was a bit wary about forking out for something that I didn’t know much about.
The heavy flow Wuka period pants are comparable to other brands price-wise, as they retail at £24.99 (although you do get free delivery to the UK and EU, which is a plus point!). For your money, though, you get a quality product that’s certified vegan, as well as the warm, fuzzy feeling that you’re not contributing to landfill. Plus, you’re saving money that you otherwise would have spent on disposable period products. Obviously I’ve only just started using them, so can’t speak for how long they might last, but I’d expect to get several years’ worth of use out of them.
When they first arrived, I took a look at my size 8 pants (the website advises you to size down if you’re between sizes) and thought they looked absolutely enormous! I was convinced that they were going to feel like a nappy once on, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. They felt just like a normal, particularly comfortable, pair of pants, and looked perfectly normal, too. The most refreshing thing about them is that they’re a million miles more comfortable than wearing a sanitary towel!
Okay, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Did my Wuka period pants actually work? In a word, yes! Sorry to overshare (again!) but for one or two nights of my period I have a heavy flow, which is only just about managed by using a heavy flow overnight sanitary towel with wings. With my Wuka period pants, I had no leakage at all, and felt clean and dry in the morning. Very impressive!
To clean my Wuka period pants, I simply rinsed them under the cold tap, then threw them into the washing machine on a 40°C wash. As it was raining last week, I left them on the drying rack to dry inside. Otherwise I’d have line dried them outside. They did take a little longer than a normal pair of pants to dry, but this is to be expected as the material is considerably thicker than a normal pair of pants.
Did you know that 4.6 million tampons, pads and liners are flushed down toilets every single day in the UK? The UnFlushables campaign is encouraging everyone to switch to reusable menstrual products like cups, cloth pads and period pants, which could save 4600 tonnes of plastic from entering the environment each year.
The UnFlushables campaign is asking women to put up their poster in public toilets to try to raise awareness and encourage others to make the switch to reusables. If you’d like to take part in the campaign, you can sign up to Wuka for your free downloadable poster, here.
