Sensory-friendly Period Underwear & bras
Periods and bras can be sensory hell. Fortunately, I finally found a brand that makes items that work with my sensory needs: Knix. Many of their products are seamless, tag free, and the fabric is silky soft. Plus, their products are available in a range of sizes and skin tones and the company uses inclusive models. Here are my tried and true favorites:
Period Underwear
Period underwear eliminates so many of the sensory and executive functioning issues I used to experience with traditional period products. The padding is very thin, black (so you can’t see the blood), absorbs liquids and odors quickly (remember “Sham Wow!”?), and there isn’t that unpleasant crinkly feeling of wearing a pad. I have period underwear in various absorbances and use it for spotting and low-to-medium flow days. However, while the high absorbency underwear holds up to heavy days, I do start to feel a bit...damp? So, I use a Diva Cup on those days, which is inserted into the vagina like a tampon, but it only needs to be cleaned once every twelve hours, so I can set alarms on my phone and forget about it.
Like many Autistics who I know, my period is affected by my stress and is mostly unpredictable, so I also like to wear period underwear pretty much whenever I leave the house. That way, I never have to use up my energy or attention worrying about if I’m going to have spotting or start to flow. *Bonus: it provides protection for those “of-a-certain-age-sneezes,” if you know what I mean.
Bras
I only wear Knix bras, and in particular, this one that clasps in back and this one that pulls over like a sports bra and is hook free. The fabric is smooth, the support is solid (I’m a C for reference), and they don’t have bulky padding or underwires. My pullover bras are so comfortable that they are actually comfortable—like, not in a “comfortable for a bra” way, but legitimately comfortable. However, while the fabric is sublime, and these two bras are WONDERFUL, I have been disappointed by other bras styles, so proceed with caution if you want to check out Knix’s other options.
Downside
The only downside of Knix is their customer service. While they’re excellent at returns and exchanges (truly excellent), when I chatted with a representative about a simple question, they gave vague answers that didn’t make sense to me, reacted very defensively to clarifying questions, and essentially refused to answer my straight-forward question about their products without first scheduling a video appointment with a random stranger (even after I told them that I’m disabled and that wouldn’t work well for my disability needs)—which, hello, is not Autsitic-accessible service. Still, their products are game-changers and I recommend checking them out.