Review: Large/Overnight HannahPad

As part of our series of reviews of reusable menstrual products, online wellness retailer Faithful to Nature sent us the large/overnight size HannahPad in exchange for our honest review. This reusable pad is bleach- and dye-free, and a single pad may last you up to three years -- seems like a worthy investment! Switching to reusable menstrual products might seem like a great deal of unnecessary trouble and cost initially, but they pay for themselves faster than you imagine. An added benefit is that you decrease your monthly contributions to landfill waste when you switch from disposable sanitaryware to reusable alternatives, and I think that's wonderful.

 

My first impression of the HannahPad was related to its size. It's really, really large -- almost the length of my forearm, in fact. Briefly, I wondered if my underwear would be up to the challenge or if I'd need to invest in a pair of high-waisted granny-style briefs. Just kidding -- I already have lots of those. My second thought was about how pretty it is. The underside is made from a synthetic-feeling fabric with a very femme flower print, which I think is cute. Even if it's not to your taste, at least you'll be consoled by the fact that you'll be bleeding on the offending object anyway.

The pad fastens to your underwear by means of a press-stud, flower-side down. It definitely feels very thick during wear, and while I only really wore pads briefly in my early teens, I can confidently say that they can't exactly be described as "barely noticeable." This trait is only exacerbated when the item in question is made from thick layers of absorbent cotton that bulk out your underwear to the point that you feel like you're wearing a nappy. Okay, I joke, but the overnight HannahPad is a little bit of an adjustment. Of course, this doesn't matter if you're just wearing it to bed, but if you suffer from incredibly heavy periods and are struggling to find an eco-alternative for daytime wear, you might want to wear sturdy bottoms like jeans or thick tights under skirts/shorts to both disguise lumps and hold the pad close to your body.

Unfortunately, keeping the pad in place was actually a concern of mine. I found that even my designated period panties (high-waisted, faded, dark in colour to hide stains, and totally worth bleeding in) weren't up to the challenge. During the night, the pad wouldn't adhere close enough to my body to prevent leaks. Certain sleeping positions with legs together made the primary collection area fold to the point of being an ineffectual barrier, and the crotch of my slightly stretched go-to menstrual uniform wasn't wide enough to really accommodate the breadth of the pad, thus compromising structural integrity. It really needs a pair of boxer briefs to do a great job, but then the press stud fastening strategy wouldn't function and the pad might wander around anyway. It's a bit of a dilemma, actually. Perhaps a nice pair of new undies that cling to the body with all the freshness only unstretched elastic can provide would be the answer here, but I'm not about to buy nice underwear just to act as a receptacle for my haemorrhaging uterus. The stake are too high for these money-spending shenanigans.

One thing that really did work was the relentlessly cheerful flower-printed underside. The fabric acts as a magical artificial guardian that prevents the soaked cotton from squeezing gore into your underwear, designated period panties or not. Even after almost completely saturating the pad, the flowery fabric showed no sign of staining. Pretty cool! Alas, this doesn't help unless the pad actually stays in place for long enough to catch the fluid anyway.

Clean-up is pretty easy -- a good thorough soaking in cold water will help get the most of it out, and then you can either hand-wash or pop it in with the rest of your laundry. I still found that a few stubborn stains were visible even after coming out the wash, and because of this I'm fairly ambivalent about the choice of a lighter fabric colour for the actual splash-zone. Although the point is to allow you to see when your pad needs to be changed, I do feel that Woman-Kind had the right idea in terms of their colour scheme.

All in all, I liked the large HannahPad for its cheery design and excellent functionality. The only issue is its massive size necessitating a better placement structure. I like the option of using a pad at night because sometimes I just don't feel like using any internal menstrual collection methods, but I also sleep on my side with my knees together and it didn't work out too well. If you happen to have very heavy periods, you'll probably find this particular HannahPad to be better suited to daytime use, when you can wear supportive clothing and control your movements to avoid involuntary bunching.

Get your HannahPad in various sizes from Faithful to Nature at the links below, or just say hi to them on social media.

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