What "feminine hygiene" products do you prefer to use?

Always ultra super-long maxi with wings. The wings are handy in case they're in a different room or closet. You just whistle and the fly out too help.
Tampons make me worry to much about toxic shock syndrome and bacterial or fungal flora and fauna having a field-day.

Isn't it funny how uncomfortable I felt responding to this? I can talk about toilet paper and soap and detergent and toothpaste and other household necessities - even diapers - without blushing, but there's some inherent embarassment in "feminine hygiene product" discussions. And sheesh - even the term "feminine hygiene" implies that it's to clean up something unclean. We don't call toilet paper "personal hygiene" products, or "excretive hygiene products", instead we name it after the substance it's made from (though it provides a similar service to us).

I haven't menstruated for about 6 months.. but I always preferred tampons.. Nice and neat.

A plaster.

Never had it, never will.

Mainly tampons, with pads for backup or at the tail end of my period. I like the concept of the cup or sea sponges, but I'm a little too squicked by the actuality. And yes, wings just rock.

Maxi pads with wings, yay! plus light days for everyday use.

The cups sound less 'toxic shock'ish and more ecological, but don't you have to wash them out in the sink, yechh, maybe even in some dingy public restroom that make you wish you could levitate.
I keep 'Always' on hand. Well, I do. (with wings, of course)

cups?!?!?!

Tampons

I've never heard of a cup... please tell.

I found information about one of them, the Keeper.

Why'd you spend it on a tampon? For 37¢ it says you can swim, do gymnastics, and go horseback riding.

sounds pretty cool...

I thought that the cup thing looked like a cool alternative, and bought a couple (the ones I tried were disposable, not meant to be reused like the Keeper that gilly's link goes to). Let me just say- look at the picture on gilly's Keeper link, but picture that little cup full of warm sticky blood. They say it's wicked convenient hiking b/c you don't have to pack in and out a bunch of disposables, but you slip behind a bush, pull the thing out, empty it into the soil, NOW WHAT? You've got blood all over your hand and wrist and thighs, and maybe underpants, and the closest sink is a half a day's hike away! This would even be a problem in a movie theater restroom where the closest sink is 6 feet away, through a crowd of people who just saw "Carrie".

i would never be able to use one of those things! my main reason for using tampons is that seeing the blood on a pad makes me retch. with a tampon i can just pull out, insert a fresh, then scrub my hands until they're raw.

topper- thanks. That's was my obvious conclusion from a quick speculation. Bet it leaks and you need a light pad anyhow. You're prose is fantastically colorful, structured, stressed, etc.

I can't imagine using cups. I prefer tampons.

Those insertable cups are a pain in the butt to use, and rather messy. I use 100% cotton tampons, and maxi pads at night.

Has anyone tried the Instead cups or anything similar? They seem interesting, but I don't know if I really want to forge ahead and buy a pack. I don't really see how feminine hygiene or menstruation is offensive, by the by.

I find eating chicken with my fingers offensive, but I don't mind discussing menstruation.
I use a tampon as an eraser for my erasable felt marker pad (attached with velcro), a tampon I got as a keepsake from one of my art teachers who used it to blend charcoals.

Tampons. Pads make me feel like I'm wearing a diaper.

I wrap maxipads around my penis on occasion, does that count?

*faints*

Twister...Twister...(slap slap slap)...wake up I was only kidding... Twister?...

huh? oh....I uh....sorry.....

It's just...that really conjured an image!

I was really only referring slyly to the lack of an "I'm a man you nitwit" option. ;)

I_L_J: I assumed that the "I do not menstuate" answer would take care of most men.

topper: I was just being amusing, and of course you're right that men would fall under that category. But so would many women, which leads me to think that it might have been broken out into two answers. No biggie. :)

Always with wings and sometimes tampons. That cup thing just sounds painful and nasty!

Tampons are far more comfortable than pads

I wear tampons because I find them quite comfortable.

When I first moved to the US I found it really strange that it's so difficult to get tampons that don't have an applicator. Frankly, they strike me as an immense waste of resources and a strange reflection on the psyche of women in the US. It was funny to go home for Christmas, buy my 12 months worth of tampons and buy 5 different brands just for the hell of it!

o.b.

I hate O.B. I hate having to stick my whole arm up there to get them in right...
*ack*

Tampax is the only way to go... and I can smell a chick wearing deodorant tampons a mile away

Right on!!!!!!! Tampax wearers of the world UNITE!!!!!

they: yeah, I saw ob, but don't like them very much - they scare me because they're fluffy and I had too many lectures on toxic schock syndrome at Uni.
twist: your whole arm? Wow, your anatomy must be vastly different to mine! teehee!

I was exaggerating for dramatic effect.
It just feels like my whole arm....
and they are so darn dry and "fluffy"(excellent word), I find them hard to get in without great acrobatics and enormous strength.

I prefer the quick and easy applicator method.

Talking about this really turns me on

also: I hate plastic applicators

they: the cardboard ones have blunt edges! I'd much rather do it myself.

I guess it really just boils down to whatever you're used to.

Twist: some of them are not so fluffy, Australian and German ones are better than what I've been able to get here.

better to have blunt edges than to have blood under your fingernail

I despise any applicator tampons. They're wasteful, sure, but more importantly they don't put the tampon it the right place (not to mention that the tampons aren't the right shape anyway). The only non-applicator tampons I've found in the US are o.b. though I have heard rumours of a different brand.

O. B. is my favorite brand! I can never get a grip on the cardboard applicators, and the plastic ones always poke me. It can be a bit messy, but that's no problem as long as there's soap and water handy.

I just got the deproprovera (sp?) shot so I haven't had a period since before I got pregnant... (except for the month or so of bleeding after the birth).. I do not recommend the shot though if you like to eat... I can't stop eating now!

Oh God! I'd turn into a major blimp!

I would really prefer Tampons if I were a woman.