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Periods and Sensory Processing

Periods & Sensory Processing

Periods and Sensory Processing. Being Neurodivergent can bring its strengths and challenges and hormones can be one of those challenges. Whether you are a young person yourself or a parent looking for some help and support we’re here to help you. We’ve been there, done it, got the t-shirt and used the period pants!

Starting Your Period

I was told that neurodivergent children get their periods earlier than neurotypical children but that is not true. The average age for starting your period is the same if you are neurodivergent or not. Periods usually begin at around the age of 12 but some will start them later, and some earlier – everyone is different.

Periods and Sensory Processing

It is though that neurodivergent people experience menstruation differently to neurotypical people. This includes:

  • Painful & heavy periods
  • Menstrual hygiene issues such as difficulty changing pads and keeping clean
  • Mood & behavioural changes
  • Heightened sensory difficulties such as changes in smell and the sight and feel of blood
  • Emotional dysregulation
  • Being generally more sensitive both internally and externally
  • Increased sensory overload before and during menstruation
  • Increased difficulties with executive function
  • PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder).

Menstrual Hygiene Issues

A big issue when it comes to menstruation is struggling to stay clean and change menstruation products. If you consider all of the above ways we will experience menstruation differently to neurptypicals it makes sense that when it comes to hygiene we are going to struggle. Heavy periods means we are more likely to leak through our products and issues with fine motor-skills can make changing things like pads difficult. Our struggles with interoception may mean we can forget to keep up with menstrual hygiene plus increased executive dysfunction.

Periods and Sensory Processing

How Can Cheeky Wipes Pants Help?

Whilst cheeky wipes pants can’t help with all of the issues we face when it comes to our monthly’s they can definitively help when it comes to hygiene and fine motor-skill issues.

There’s no rocket science or magic involved in how they work – you just bleed on them, wash, and reuse. Just as you would wash your knickers if your period came on unexpectedly early.  The difference is that reusable period products come with additional elements to keep you fresh and dry. However unlike many High St / Supermarket brands, Cheeky Wipe Pants come with absorbency not just in the gusset, but right to the front and rear waistband which is super important for preventing leaks when active or sleeping.

Periods and Sensory Processing

Cheeky Wipe Pants come in light, medium and heavy to meet your flow needs. Only you will know how often you need to change them but it is so much easier to just remove these pants for washing and put on a clean pair. No having to stick a fresh pad in place and getting it wrong and then leaking!

Easy To Clean

Either wash within 24 hours, or cold soak for couple of days and pop in the washing machine. Blood stains must be washed out at body temperature or below otherwise the blood will stain, so wash in temperatures 30 degrees or lower. Then simply leave to air dry … it’s that easy.

After trying several different brands of period pants we came across cheeky wipes, they are reliable, easy to care for and comfy for my autistic daughter. With her having selective mutism and knowing she wouldn’t be able to communicate should there be an issue throughout her school day it’s so important to know we have found something that isn’t going to leak, make her uncomfortable or cause her any issues in which she would struggle to rectify. They have made a difficult sensory situation much easier for her to cope!

If you’d like to know more about Cheeky Wipe Pants or buy some click here 👇

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