May I scream for a moment and tell you that the first study where scientists tested the absorbancy of period products using blood and not water was just published THIS WEEK!!!
Unsurprisingly, it shows that products aren’t as absorbant as the labels say. How absurd is it that it took this long to test products on what they are actually supposed to be used on.
"The first study to compare the absorption of period products using human blood suggests diaphragm-shaped menstrual discs may be better than traditional pads or tampons for dealing with heavy monthly blood flow.
Manufacturers have traditionally used saline or water to estimate the absorption of their products, even though menstrual blood is more viscous and includes blood cells, secretions and tissue from the shed endometrial lining, all of which affect how it is absorbed."
Then again, menstrual secretions are also not composed of blood. They’re probably more like blood than they are like water, but this still isn’t an actual-use-case test.
Article from the Guardian. “Manufacturers have traditionally used saline or water to estimate the absorption of their products, even though menstrual blood is more viscous and includes blood cells, secretions and tissue from the shed endometrial lining, all of which affect how it is absorbed.”
This reminds me of a conversation I once had with a product designer, who had been tasked with designing a teapot for mass production and use in a chain restaurant. The key task was that the spout should not drip.
They did mountains of testing and prototyping til they’d landed on the perfect, non dripping teapot, and it went into full production.
Trouble is, they’d only tested it with water. Sure enough, actual tea still dripped.
