What do you call sanitary towels?

Oopsadaisy1, ST for sanitary towels lost my usage when working for WHSmiths.
As every computer user in their offices was instructed to use ST as a password. Male instructors told new comers to think of it standing for Shirley Temple.
Did we heck as like!!!

When I was young they were called Dr Whites and my mother called them Necessaries. The word Period was never uttered.
When my teenage daughter got a weekend job stacking shelves a customer asked where The Monthlies were and she had no idea what was meant.
Thank goodness we are open enough now to talk about periods, the menopause, infertility and most of the old taboos.

I was always worried the sticky would unstick and fall out of my knickers when I wore a skirt,no trousers where allowed at work in the 90's
I look at the Boots uniform now,they even wear jeans and trainers .
Life would have so much more comfortable.

Oh yes FoghornLeghorn The pain of the errant adhesive strips!

Having used Tampax for years, when I had my tubes tied I was told no tampon for the first period following the op. I dutifully bought a pack of stick on pads, the ones with wings. I got in such a mess, I couldn’t get the wings to stick to my knickers but they managed to adhere to everything else. Having almost given myself a Brazilian wax with them I decided to risk my usual Tampax and had no ill effects. 😂

I would still call disposable pads, Sanitary Towels. Nowadays you can buy washable pads, menstrual cups, menstrual discs and period pans. I started using washable pads instead of incontinence pads when things became a problem. I have struggled all my life with bleached products and the plastic in ST's so it made life easier to have bamboo pads. The menstrual cups would have also been a problem. Plastic and me don't mix!

I too had to hide them from my dad when I was " so so" as my mother called it! Being pregnant was also called "so so!" No wonder I grew up inhibited!

I often wondered how my mother coped as she had been a ballet dancer. I know she used tampons when they became available - but I don't know when they were. I didn't use them until I was at college at a friend gave me one to try. I never looked back!!!

There are a lot of environmental alternatives for one-use sanitary pads, but to answer your question : there is nothing wrong with the term, because it is "sanitary" as in health-related, not something derogative. So that's fine (imho)! I guess teenagers will always know better, right 😅

I was told that they were called bunnies during and after the war, because someone called Warren had organised supplies to be provided for the women who were in the forces.

Went to Germany in early 80s and bought a product called Camelia 2000. They were scented, had a sticky strip down the centre of the pad and were totally amazing. Couldn't find them in the UK but we did catch up in time.

My granddaughter used to spend alternate weekends with my son. I noticed signs of ‘development’ and bought sanitary towels for him to keep at his house ‘just in case’. He used the term ‘ sanitary pads’ but when I spoke to her she called them ‘period pads’. Perhaps it’s a generation thing

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this but can anyone remember the sanitary belt and the Dr. White pads with loops?
I then ditched the belt and safety pinned the pad to my knickers!

My father used to call them manhole covers!!! I've heard Jam rags too but I just called then ST's.

At home periods and pads were never mentioned in front of my Dad so I was very surprised that when we were first married my Middle Eastern husband thought nothing of going to the pharmacy for a “box of Tampax and a packet of ladies monthly backache pills”

To me they are sanitary towels. I now use them as my bladder weakens and if I cough or move suddenly I have small bladder accidents. I don’t wear the pants much as getting them on is not always easy. I don’t mind the inconvenience as it is better than the alternative!

Dr Whites!

Have always called them sanitary towels, or occasionally pads. Then again, I always used tampons so not totally relevant to me. Young people can be really oversensitive about language - time they grew a pair and stopped whining!

Always referred to as "bunnies" when I was doing my nursing and midwifery training in the 1960s.

Feminine hygiene products

We also called them bunnies - they were Dr Whites, very bulky and with rubber pop on around the loops awful things!

After games lessons we had to use much hated communal showers. We were excused these by handing the games mistress a slip of paper with "P" on it. She kept a record of these as we were keen to avoid the showers as much as possible

Fanny pads or jam rags, (going back a few years).

You beat me to it !!!!

I remember the joke about Tampax when it first came out.
Small boy went into chemist and asked for Tampax. “Are they for your sister?” Asked the chemist. “No. For me because the advert says that with them you can ride a bike and swim and I can’t do either”