Reusable Menstrual Wear Review: Wear Em Out Pads

As you may have noticed, it’s been a while since my last review blog but I’m back. We did a little haul of products to get us through the next few months of blog posts and one thing I focused on when picking products to review over the next few months was products I’m seeing lots about online, primarily on social media ads. Between my work with the SuPer Project and the fact I’m currently doing my Doctorate in menstrual stigma, I pretty much eat, sleep and breathe menstruation and one of the unexpected side effects of that is that pretty much all of my social media targeted ads are for period products of various kinds. I often find however that targeted advertising can be the wild west of the internet. Any company can market any product through targeted ads if they’re willing to pay for it, these ads can be beautifully enticing and it can be difficult to tell from these ads what is a good product and what is going to cost a fortune only for it to arrive and be poor quality, overpriced crap. So, for the next few blogs, I wanted to focus on these products to help you figure out which products are worth paying out for. The menstrual product market can be a minefield at the best of times, and I hope these blogs can give you some support in finding a product that works best for you.

I’m starting with Wear Em Out, I’ve heard a lot about this brand over the years, including personal recommendations so I was really keen to try them out and see if they lived up to all the hype. I ordered the ‘Period Cup and Lighter Trial Pack’ directly from their website, which cost £45 plus shipping of £4.44. The website offered a 10% discount for first orders if you signed up to their mailing list meaning the total price came to £44.94 (ordered March 2024, prices may change).

Image taken from wearemout.co.uk

The pack includes 3 pads (1x Mini Flo, 1xMedium Flo and 1x Mega Flo) and 1 period cup (which comes in a choice of 2 sizes). Today, I’m just going to focus on the pads, but I will come back to the cup in a later blog. These pads definitely have one of the most unique designs of the pads currently on the market. I often find that many companies have pretty much exactly the same design, probably made by the same manufacturer but Wear Em’ Outs design appears truly unique to them. That being said, if you are looking for a design to recreate a pad at home, this may not be the one as the ribbing around the edge of the pads is not something that can easily be done without an industrial machine. In addition to this, I felt these pads we pretty small, this only became exacerbated after the first wash when the pads appeared to shrink – the first time this has ever happened to me with a reusable pad. I also felt the design was very narrow - something that could be both seen as a positive or negative depending on your preferences. The pads felt incredibly comfortable and discreet to wear, the pad only about as wide as the gusset of a standard pair of knickers which for many people would be a bonus, but as these pads don’t really have wings (there are wings underneath to attach to your underwear, but they don’t wrap around per se) my concern was that for menstruators with a heavier flow these would potentially lead to leaks. This again comes back to my comments about size, these pads seem very small compared to others on the market (their medium seemed more like a small in my opinion) which again leads to concerns about leakage particularly for heavier flows. I don’t consider myself to have a particularly heavy flow, but I did find that these pads weren’t long enough to catch everything and ended up leaking into my underwear. Although, how much this would affect you would likely depend on whether you’re a front, middle or back bleeder. I feel like Wear Em Out have tried to counteract this with the ribbing to stop blood from overflowing over the edges – but if they aren’t long enough to begin with this just isn’t going to cut it.

Another couple of weird I noticed with these pads; firstly, the fabric appeared to collect loads of fluff in the wash which just seemed very bizarre to me, I’ve never had to lint roll a menstrual pad before… and secondly, the way the wings and buttons are designed means they aren’t easy to fold thereby reducing how easy and discreet they are to use when out and about.

Pro’s 

These pads are a super comfortable design, the narrow design means they don’t feel super bulky. They clean very well and don’t seem to stain easily.

Con’s 

The small and narrow design means that they are unlikely to cut it if you have a very heavy flow.

Star Rating 

Affordability 3/5 

Ease of Clean 4/5 

Convenience 3/5 

Eco Friendly Design 4/5 

Comfort 5/5 

I realise this blog may sound a bit negative, but overall I do believe the Wear Em’ Outs are a great pad that are comfortable, discreet and easy to clean. If you have a light – standard flow these would make a great starter pad. However, if you do have a heavier flow there may be better products on the market for you.

Thanks for taking the time to read this month’s blog, don’t forget to share it with your friends and spread the word. Next month I will be stepping back into the world of menstrual cups.

Disclaimer - This blog is the opinion of Mel Newton based on her own personal experiences with products listed and does not necessarily reflect the views of The SuPer Project or Tiger Community Enterprise CIC. We hope through this series to encourage open and honest conversations around menstruation and sanitary wear. This is not an advertisement and we have no affiliation with Wear Em’ Out or its associated brands.