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Most women cannot name a single ingredient in the pad they used this month. That is not their fault. Period products in India aren't required to disclose ingredients. Not one. Unlike the food you eat or the moisturizer you apply, the product sitting against your skin for hours a day, every month, for thirty years has no required label.
That changes when you start asking questions
Here is what the research shows. Most conventional sanitary pads contain up to 90% plastic. Synthetic fibers. Chemical coatings. Added fragrances. All of it is in contact with some of the most absorbent tissue on the body. “The rashes, the irritation, the recurring infections that millions of women have accepted as just part of having periods. For many, these are reactions to materials, not to menstruation itself. The problem was never periods. It was what we were using,” Certified Functional Nutritionist Sujata Pawar, Founder of Avni Wellness, tells Health Shots.
We're now seeing a global shift
Scotland made period products free for every citizen. France and Germany have made sustainable options tax-exempt. In Australia, they stock them next to regular groceries. This is not a niche wellness movement. It is a mainstream public health reckoning, one that centers on a simple idea: women deserve to know what they are using. India is arriving at the same conclusion.
Quietly, quickly, and on the consumer's terms:
The options are wider than most people think: Cloth pads, Period panties, Menstrual cups, Menstrual discs, four categories, four very different experiences. Cloth pads are layered, absorbent fabric with no plastic, no synthetics, washable and reusable for years. Period panties look and feel like regular underwear, with a built-in absorbent lining built in, making them the easiest switch for most women. Menstrual cups are medical-grade silicone worn internally to collect flow, not absorb it. One cup lasts a decade. Menstrual discs sit higher near the cervix, which many prefer for exercise and longer wear. No single product works for every woman. The point is having a real choice.
Now comes the hygiene question: Cold rinse, thorough wash. Dry fully in sunlight. Sunlight is a natural disinfectant, and skipping this step is where problems begin. Done right, a reusable product is no less hygienic than any garment worn against the skin daily. Look for dermatological testing, natural fibers, and the absence of synthetic dyes or chemical treatments. If a brand cannot tell you what is in its product, that is already an answer.
Start with one product at a time: Most women who make a partial switch end up making a fuller one, not out of environmental obligation but because their skin finally stops reacting. India discards twelve billion pads every year. Eight hundred years to decompose. Thirty years of ingredients nobody disclosed. The information was always the missing piece. Now you have it.
