Pads: How to Choose, Use and Change Them

A pad is the simplest way to handle a period: it sticks inside your underwear, catches the blood, and nothing goes inside your body. Pick one that matches your flow, choose wings so it stays put, and change it every 4 to 6 hours, sooner on heavy days.

Choosing a pad: size, thickness and wings

Pads are sold by how much they absorb, and the packet usually shows it with drops:

• Panty liners are thin and small, for discharge or the very light last day of a period. They are not made for a normal period day.
• Regular pads suit most days.
• Heavy or super pads hold more, for the days when blood comes faster.
• Night or overnight pads are longer and wider at the back, so they catch blood while you are lying down.

Thin pads show less and thicker ones feel more cushioned, and both work. Wings are the flaps that fold around the sides of your underwear and stop the pad sliding, which is why a regular pad with wings makes a good first choice. Reusable cloth pads work the same way and are washed instead of thrown away.

If your skin gets itchy or sore, try an unscented pad or a different brand, and tell an adult you trust if it does not settle or comes with a change in your discharge. It is also completely normal to use two or three kinds in one period: a heavier pad on your heaviest days, a regular one in between, and a liner at the end. Pads 101: A Complete Guide for Beginners has more tips for avoiding leaks.

How to put on a pad

1. Wash your hands.
2. Unwrap the pad and keep the wrapper for later.
3. Peel the paper strip off the sticky back.
4. Press the sticky side onto the middle of your underwear, the part that sits between your legs, with the longer or wider end towards the back.
5. If it has wings, peel them and fold them around the edges of your underwear so they stick underneath.

It should sit in the centre, not too far forward or back. If you leak at the back at night, put the next one slightly further back, and if you leak at the front, slightly further forward. Snug underwear holds a pad better than loose shorts.

How often to change it

Change a pad every 4 to 6 hours, and sooner on heavy days. Change it whenever it feels full, damp or uncomfortable, too. That timing is about comfort and feeling fresh, not a safety limit, and changing sooner is never wrong.

On a school day, a simple rhythm is a fresh pad before you leave, one at lunch, one when you get home, and a night pad right before bed.

One pad number is different from the rest. Tell an adult you trust if you need a new pad every 1 to 2 hours, bleed through onto your clothes or bed even after changing on time, pass clots bigger than about 2.5 cm, have a period that lasts more than 7 days, or often feel tired or short of breath. Heavy periods are something a doctor can help with, and they are worth mentioning even when everything else seems normal, including when they start with your very first period.

Throwing a used pad away, and carrying spares

Roll the used pad up with the blood inside, wrap it in the wrapper from your new pad or in toilet paper, and put it in the bin. School toilets often have a small bin in each stall for exactly this. Never flush it. If there is no bin, wrap it well and put it in a small bag to throw away later. Then wash your hands.

For days out, keep a small kit in a pencil case, makeup bag or zip pocket: two or three pads, a liner, a spare pair of underwear and a small bag for a used pad. A pad in a pouch looks like nothing in particular, and you can slip it into your sleeve or pocket on the way to the toilet. If you get caught without one, the school nurse, a teacher or the office usually has spares, and folded toilet paper works for a short while.

Period underwear: the washable option

Period underwear looks like ordinary underwear but has absorbent layers built in, so you wear it instead of a pad or together with one. Many people like it for lighter days, for nights, or as a backup under a pad on heavy days. You change the whole pair rather than a pad, so it suits days when you can get home or carry a spare pair. Rinse it in cold water after wearing it, then wash it as the label says. It costs more up front than a packet of pads but lasts for many cycles. Period Underwear and Other Options to Explore compares the choices in more detail.

Tampons and cups, for later

Tampons and menstrual cups go inside the vagina and collect blood there. Some people try them later, often for sport or swimming, and plenty stay with pads and period underwear for good. There is no point by which you have to switch.

Unlike pads, they come with firm time limits and safety rules of their own, so if you decide to try one, read a full guide first, such as Can You Use Tampons for Your First Period?