Until recently, they didn't test period products with blood

Fibroids. Fibroids cause a flow that heavy. Hysterectomy was the best thing I ever did for myself.

Any woman could have guessed that. I complained to Always when they "improved" their product once to the point I have to change brands because it wasn't absorbing. I never complain about anything.

I mean… how exactly would they do industrial manufacturing scale testing with blood?

I had the same question so I looked at the article and it said they used packed red blood cells. Still not as viscous as real period blood but closer than water I guess. I can’t work up any outrage over the fact that blood is only now being used. It’s not like I was looking for anything more specific than super, regular and light. 

Blood from where? People? Pigs? Expired blood bank blood? Menstrual blood vs fresh blood? Has it been preserved? Have heparin added? How much is needed to have conclusive data? Why is that necessary, honestly?

Does anyone look at a box and see "this one will hold 50ml, I'm sure it's going to be a 200ml sort of day" and size up? Is this testing being conducted by a 3rd party? Did someone wake up one day and say, hey, I am tired of only getting the Blue Water side of the data story here. I need ACTUAL BLOOD RESULTS IN ORDER TO LIVE MY LIFE, and then spearheaded a movement for actual blood testing?

I have a lot of questions...

I just kept a full supply on me at all times until I had my hysterectomy. It was awful! A super plus would barely last 30 minutes for the first couple days. I had to also use a pad. So...I guess I'm not sure why there needs to be blood testing. Buy super, light, etc.
I had a box of each size every month. The first thing I did after my hysterectomy was skip down the tampon aisle and not buy a thing.

I was still finding extra tampons in unused purses for like a year 🥴

I offered him my placenta but there was too much drama surrounding ds’ birth and I said to just get rid of it. The researchers were my students.

Endometrial ablation solved my problem. I never had another period until menopause, 12 years later. ETA I mean, I never had another period, period.

There’s nothing quite like standing in front of a classroom full of kids and feeling that gush and slither, is there? 😂🤢

As someone else (maybe you?) said above, if men had to deal with this, there would be multiple low-cost solutions for it by now. It’s ridiculous.

I see that in a lot of breweries in my city. It is weird how almost every brewery has free supplies but very few bars/restaurants do yet. We have a Columbus-based company called Aunt Flow that puts free vending machines in restrooms around here. I was really happy when I first saw them, and I am in menopause.

It seems so dumb to me that all these years men have been putting these products on the market without accurately testing them. Periods are not like water, at all. There had to be some way to test them with blood.

Boy, I am so glad I don't have to deal with that crap anymore.

I just have too respond to this, as it has me shaking my head in disbelief.

Firstly - do you really think there are 'foreign countries' with blood to spare? where do you envision this 'foreign' blood coming from?

Secondly - development and manufacturing of period products happens all over the world. This is the industry my DH is in - he works for a Swedish based company that it one of the largest manufacturers worldwide of personal hygiene products. Not just period needs, but diapers, incontinence, toilet paper, tissues and the like. They have manufacturing sites everywhere: Many European countries, India, Australia, Mexico and Colombia among them, as well as the US and Canada. Are these some of the 'foreign' countries you see donating blood? 


Oh, and it’s not pharmaceutical companies making these products either.

I would think it is far more likely that any testing with blood would use animal blood.

I feel certain that with all the scientific advances we’ve made in the last several decades, someone could have and may already have invented a product that more closely mimics the behavior of period blood than plain water does. No actual blood needed. It just wasn’t seen as important for this purpose.