What do you call sanitary towels?

I've not really thought about what to call them specifically. I sometimes call them san pads or just pads and occasionally period pads. I always keep some in the bathroom when my granddaughters come round - just in case!

When I was in my early teens my mum asked me to get some pads from the local Chemist nearby - and run by a man. I felt embarrassed at first but it was fine - very normal I would say and I got used to it.

What was more embarrassing was when I was 15 and I felt very faint in class and a boy friend [not a 'boyfriend'] said to the teacher that I probably had my period - his father was a doctor! Needless to say I survived

I remember an extended family holiday years ago at the seaside. Where ever we went my aunt insisted on going in the public loos near the hotel . She always left a newspaper-wrapped parcel in what I now know was the sanitary towel bin. Noisy Nora I asked my mum what she was leaving and was told stale sandwiches, after a week I asked how many sandwiches did Aunty bring with her? A big push in the back and the "cow eyes ", from Mum told me I had overstepped the mark.
Another year the same aunt fell out of a rowing boat at Butlins and was mortified for the rest of the hols as her dress had blown up "It was her time of the month ", as she said and for the rest of our stay, she looked to see if anyone who had rescued her was starring at her. much to our delight as we knew by then what it was all about.

I can honestly say that having periods was one of the things I have always loathed about being a woman.

My mother called them sanitary towels but I began using tampons in my late teens and called them that. The pain was so bad with my periods I used to scream and cry. As soon as I left home (age 22) I went on the birth control pill and used to take them concurrently so I only had a period very occasionally. I did that for years and only stopped at age 40. No more periods since then. Now of course you can get medications (other than the birth control pill) which are designed to stop periods.

One thing that amazed me at 16, when on my German exchange trip, was that the German ‘mutti’ would not allow her dds to bath or wash their hair while they had their period. The younger dd positively had a tantrum at the dinner table, because she wasn’t allowed to wash her hair.

To me this was like something out of the Dark Ages, but I’ve since learned that the idea was not unknown in the U.K., either. Thank goodness my mother was relatively enlightened.

Luckygirl fibroids for me also,but also endometriosis and adhesions caused through 2 C sections and having my tubes tied same time as second section.

C sections and having my tubes tied

Fibroids for me also. Hysterectomy at 35. No need for any sanitary product since. Hallelujah.

Same here MrsKen33 best thing I ever did.

'Dr White's' to start with, bought from Mrs Jones in the village wool shop. Then my sister started work in the chemist's shop so she brought them home. I hated them and the horrible belt with anchor shaped things to hold the loops. When I was 16 I spent the summer away from home so I started using Tampax, and continued until the menopause. Now I refer to them as 'ladies' necessaries', (cos I'm very refined).

I had heavy periods too but not at first. It was mainly in my 30s and 40s. Being pregnant meant they stopped and for the duration of breast feeding.
Eventually I had a hysterectomy but that was due to prolapse. What a relief that was.
I have 5 DGD. I hope they don't suffer.

I've always thought one of the few good things about getting old is having no periods.

Going back to the original post, surely the use of the word “sanitary” means “pertaining to health” ?
You know, mens sana in corpore sano and has nothing to do with sanitary/insanitary
Another instance of the roots of meanings of words getting lost ?
Bring back Latin in schools! 👨‍🎓👨‍🎓👨‍🎓👨‍🎓

My mother also called it "being unwell" or even "being bad". She told me not to wash my hair when I had a period as it was dangerous. As for tampons she could simply not figure out how to use them. I never knew what she used once I left home because it was not a subject for discussion. I dont ever recall my grandmother referring to periods at all but she was born in the Edwardian period when women ripped up bits of rag.

All I know is that men would not have put up with all this pallaver. If men had periods the trenches would have been full of whinging troops every 28 days.

Character building & acceptance I would say.

Megslotts

Character building & acceptance I would say.

What is?

I think the men who fought for us and spent time in the trenches deserve more respect than that biglouis

My mother was in hospital when my periods started and it was down to my extremely stiff upper lipped father to take me to the chemist. A very embarrassed assistant (male) had to sort everything out for me while my father lurked outside the door. Ghastly experience! My mother never ever mentioned menstruation - but a packet of Dr Whites would appear in my underwear drawer. each month.
Sanitary products are called 'supplies' in our family and dd's have continued this with dgd.

I have always called them bunnies 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

When I was in my teens I went into a chemist with my sister to buy some lillets. There was a road being drilled with a pneumatic drill just outside so it was very noisy, I had to shout very loudly 'a packet of Lillets please' The chemist reached behind and put a packet of Gillette razor blades on the counter so from then on we always called them razor blades.

'Ladies things' 🤣🤣

One Christmas my brother bought my Mum a packet of Dr White's. He was so proud of himself - he knew she wanted new bathroom towels. He was 7.

Pads STs or tampons. By the time I started, aged 14 in 1979, the stick on pads had become widely available but they were still anything but discreet as they were so thick and bulky. From the age of fifteen, I used Lillets and they were so much better. Thanks to a successful endometrial ablation in 2014 l have not needed such things since, thank goodness.

My husband is a few years older than me. When he was a child in the sixties, Dr. Kildare was a very popular programme and he was playing at being the good doctor with his friends in the garden next door. His mother had the shock of her life at seeing her ST being used as a surgical mask.

When I was in high school we called them rags and if you has your period you were on the rag. Then they became pads.

eddiecat78

When did the belt stop being necessary? I remember being issued with a list of requirements when I went into hospital to give birth 40 years ago which included 2 belts and several mega packs of towels. I dutifully obeyed but I was only there for 2 nights!

I started using them around 74 and remembered mum saying I should think myself lucky I didn't have to use one.
They were still around, but more modern brands had self adhesive straps that stuck (or didn't) into your pants.

I don’t think I called them anything! We had a very prim but benevolent lady running the drapers shop in the village. Miss Fergie sold the towels and wrapped them beautifully in brown paper. It was the sort of shop that a man wouldn’t have gone near- wools and ladies underwear. My best friend even at 18 couldn’t bring herself to buy towels and I had to go in the shop for her. Weare both 78 this year so I hope she improved when I moved away. My mother called periods poorlies which I hated and my aunt said when I started that my country cousins were visiting. I also had the taboo on hair washing.

Our generation did call them sanitary towels, although I remember an elderly aunt referring to sanitary napkins.

I would have told the uppish granddaughter that calling them sanitary towels was done because the makers of them regarded them as more sanitary than the home-knitted cotton towels that had to be washed, not because they or we found periods insanitary, just quite literally a bloody nusiance.

Yes, washable sanitary towels are better for the environment, even although they have to be both steeped, rinsed and washed at a hot temperature IF you make them yourself with no plastic, but the modern knitting patterns I have seen, tell girls to include a strip of plastic! Which is not good for the environment nor for the wearer!

A lot of European languages call them monthly cloths - which might offend the generation actually using them less than sanitary towels.