For people who menstruate, dealing with blood stains is a fact of life. Luckily, how to take period stains out of underwear isn’t that complicated when you know a few tricks, and it can be even easier to do when you have period panties made with stain-resistant fabrics. But the things that lead to some period problems can be a little harder to figure out.
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Problem: Period Bleeding Through Pants
Just about everyone has woken up to find a period leak and blood on the sheets. At least when that happens, you’re in the privacy of your own home (hopefully!). A more urgent situation occurs when you have to deal with a period leak through pants. It usually happens when you’re busy and on the go— that’s why you didn’t get a chance to check your pad or change out your tampon before the leak happened, right? Other times you might end up with period blood on pants are:
- Your period catches you by surprise. Sometimes you forget when it’s supposed to arrive and end up with a period-through-pants incident.
- Your period is irregular. It’s common for tweens and teens to have irregular periods, but anyone can have cycles that don’t show up like clockwork.
- You have your first period. It’s about impossible to predict the exact day and time when your first period will strike. Many girls are shocked to find first period blood in underwear.
Problem: First Period Surprise
What does your first period look like in your underwear? For most girls, it’s usually a brownish-red color instead of bright red. Hopefully, once you’ve been through your very first period, you won’t have to find out what does a period look like in pants. A great solution that’s growing in popularity is period underwear that stops you from getting period blood on pants. These undies have a waterproof barrier, and many have absorbent layers too.
Problem: Blood in Underwear When It’s Not Period Time
Seeing red in your panties when it’s not your time of the month is upsetting for most women. Are you wondering why is blood in my underwear not my period? Sometimes spotting can happen between periods and you’ll end up with blood in panties no period because of stress or even something as familiar as a change in diet. For example, some women report experiencing the blood on panties not period phenom during the first phase of the Atkins diet. Here are some other reasons that you might get blood in underwear when it’s not time for your period:
- Medication: Some medications and supplements can cause bleeding, especially ones that have blood-thinning effects. Some birth control methods can cause unexpected vaginal bleeding too.
- STDs: If you noticed bleeding after sex, you could be showing signs of an STD like chlamydia or trichomoniasis. STDs might not have any symptoms, but they can cause your cervix to become inflamed and more susceptible to bleeding.
- Pregnancy: Vaginal bleeding and spotting can be an early sign of pregnancy.
- Thyroid problems: A thyroid that isn’t working as well as it should can affect your hormones and cause vaginal bleeding and blood on panties when it’s not your period.
Needless to say, if you’re finding blood in your panties when it’s not the time for your period, you should see a doctor. It could merely be that stress is causing a hormone fluctuation, but there is no way to know for sure without getting a medical checkup.
How Do You Get Period Blood Out of Underwear?
Period blood can cause some tough-to-remove, set-in stains, mainly if it’s left to dry for a long time. However, even dried-in period blood on panties can still be removed with some of the cleaning tricks demonstrated in these videos. You can also check out this article.[link: How to Clean Period Panties]
This video shows how to get period blood out of undies using hydrogen peroxide. Warning! It features close-up shots of period stained underwear.
Check out Buzzfeed’s hacks that show how to get blood out of underwear from a period using things like regular table salt, hydrogen peroxide and Advil.
Here’s a tutorial for how to get period blood off of underwear using stuff you can find in your kitchen like meat tenderizer and cornstarch.
This YouTuber shows the specialized products she uses to get period blood out of undies.
As you can see, you don’t have to live with period stained underwear or throw them out because you think they’re ruined. There are many ways to get rid of period blood on underwear, regardless of how it got there in the first place. The same cleaning methods apply to removing period blood from pants and sheets.