Periods While Backpacking: The Bloody Truth About Menstruation on the Trail

The bloody truth about getting your period while backpacking? It sucks.

Dealing with those 3-7 days every month in the real world is just about enough to make women lose their marbles … now take away flushing toilets, garbage cans, sinks, showers, spare underwear/clothing, heating pads and/or ice, and comfort food, and then deal with your uterus shedding its lining. Piece of cake.

Anyone who has gone through menses in any type of wilderness environment deserves five gold stars and a trophy just for existing. Give yourself a pat on the back if you’re one of them.

If you’ve yet to experience the joys of bleeding in the woods, you’ve come to the right place. I, Allison Kieley, just so happen to be a Certified Woman and with the help of my fellow lady Trek bloggers/writers have compiled some helpful information and resources to make sure you’re fully prepared to deal with your period while backpacking.

Will I stop getting my period while backpacking?

Some people experience lighter flow or miss their period altogether on long backpacking trips. This is because the combination of intense and prolonged physical exertion and calorie deprivation causes hormonal imbalances that disrupt menstruation. There’s no guarantee that this will happen, though, so having a strategy to deal with your period is still essential.

If you’re someone who still menstruates and is backpacking a long trail, you must be ready to deal with your period in some capacity. Sorry. Everyone’s body reacts differently to that time of the month, and finding what works for you before hitting the trail is absolutely 100 percent imperative.

Experiment with different options and find out what you prefer. Can you rock the Diva Cup? Are you going to stick to what you know and use tampons? Do you give your uterus a royal F U and take birth control, skipping the placebos every month in hopes of avoiding your period altogether? The variety of products/strategies for backcountry menstruation can be overwhelming, so let’s break down the most popular options, shall we?

How to Deal with Your Period While Backpacking

Tampons/Pads

Riding the cotton pony is probably the most common method of controlling your period on trail. You can buy tampons/pads anywhere, and that convenience factor can seem like a luxury while scouring the aisles of a gas station searching for individual packs of PopTarts because you only need three, not a box of eight.

If you choose to use tampons and/or pads on trail, remember the Leave No Trace principle of “pack it in, pack it out.” Discretion levels significantly decrease the second you step on trail, so carrying around a bag of bloody tampons isn’t THAT big of a deal.

Try wrapping a Ziplock bag in duct tape so you don’t have to look at the mess, or double bagging a Ziplock inside of a colored plastic bag (Dollar General bags come in a beautiful electric yellow color). Some people even use an empty Pringles can as a discreet way to pack out used tampons and pads.

If you want to save some weight, try using non-applicator tampons (for example, OB tampons).

Menstrual Cup

Menstrual cups are a lot of hikers’ go-to product to deal with their period while backpacking. These stemmed, bell-shaped contraptions are typically made of medical-grade silicone. The Diva Cup and Moon Cup are two of the more popular brands, but there are other options.

This is a great option for those hikers who don’t want to bother with the mess of packing out tampons and pads. Menstrual cups are also reusable, so worrying about resupplying your feminine products becomes a nonissue. You’ll save weight and money by packing just one cup, rather than a resupply’s worth of pads and tampons, to say nothing of the material you’re keeping out of the landfill.

I am biased towards menstrual cups and think the Diva Cup is a gift from the period gods. It only needs to be changed every 12 hours, is cool to sleep in, and is surprisingly comfortable.

Practice using this several times before hittin’ the trail, you’ll thank me.

How To Clean a Menstrual Cup While Backpacking

Menstrual cups are made of medical-grade silicone that doesn’t support bacterial growth, so they’re actually easier to keep clean than you might think.

During your period, simply dump out the cup’s contents in a cathole, rinse (with clean water and unscented soap if you have the capacity, or wipe with a wet wipe), and reinsert. If going the wet wipe route, look for something mild or, even better, a pH-balanced feminine wipe. A backcountry bidet like the CuloClean works well for getting enough water pressure to thoroughly rinse your cup as well.

At the end of your period, you can boil the menstrual cup for complete disinfection.

Reusable Pads

There are a number of options out there, including GladRags. If this is your choice, you can bring two pads so you have one to wear while the other one is washed and hung on the outside of your pack to dry.  Another great benefit to these is that they’ll keep your underwear clean much longer. And the best part: no packing out blood-soaked trash.

There are only a few downsides to the reusable pad. One is that because of its high absorbency, it is a thicker material.  It gets a little bulky. This also means it can trap moisture and odors, which can be problematic in the backcountry. And, if you’re more bashful, you’d typically have to hang it on the outside of your pack, or tent overnight, to let it dry.  You would still have to go 200 feet from anything and dig a cathole to bury whatever you’re rinsing from the pad.

What about period underwear for backpacking?

Period underwear like Thinx follows the same principle as reusable pads, except the pad part is integrated with the underwear. While very convenient in the civilized world, period underwear doesn’t make as much sense backcountry. They’re very bulky and you probably won’t want to wear them the rest of the month when you’re not on your period, meaning you’d have to take two sets of period undies and two standard pairs.

In contrast, the reusable pad offers a modular solution where you can wear your normal underwear most of the time and just add the pads when needed, saving weight and space.

Birth Control

When you’re on the pill, you don’t ovulate, so your uterine lining doesn’t build up as much. In fact, you don’t have a true “period” during the placebo phase — just withdrawal bleeding, in which your uterine lining breaks down in response to the drop in hormones.

So most pill-takers bleed less for a shorter time, and have little or no cramping. This is a great option for those who are already on birth control or who have bad cramps.

If you’re serious about birth control, getting an IUD is also an option. Some people stop getting their period altogether or experience a much lighter flow with a hormonal IUD, although this is not a guarantee. Copper IUDs, in contrast, pretty much never make someone’s period go away.

Speaking of Cramps…

Let’s talk about that for a hot sec. Period cramps can be crippling. Make sure you’re drinking enough water, take a break when you need one, and have a fresh supply of drugs to ward off the cramp demons (my drug of choice is Motrin).

If you’re into the whole heating pad thing, try filling up a Nalgene with boiling water and putting it on your tummy. I’ve never tried that because I carry Gatorade bottles, but people use this hack to warm their sleeping bags at night so I assume the effects are similar.

Increasing exercise also helps alleviate cramps, so it’s a good thing you’re walking all day. If all else fails, just stop for a second and remember you’re one tough cookie. Imagine how much harder your hike would be if you were pregnant.

For those with severe cramping, you might need to budget extra time and money for zeroes and low-mileage days during your period each month.

Sanitation

Sanitation is another issue many people are concerned about during their period.

I always carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer in the same plastic bag that has my toilet paper in it, so I always have it when I need it. Wash your hands with soap and clean water if you’re near a water source (200 feet away from it, of course). Carrying travel-sized Wet Wipes is always an option, as well as extra toilet paper during your time of the month.

Whether you’re on the trail or at home, periods suck. Being prepared with a Period Plan and tackling your menses head-on is the only way to get through it! Buddy up with another hiker who gets it and just let those hormones flow … it’ll be over soon.

How do you deal with your period while backpacking? Curling up in a ball and crying is NOT an option.

Happy Trails,
Bandit

Featured image: Allison Kieley photo. Graphic design by Chris Helm.

This article was originally published on 1 April 2014. It was last updated by our editorial staff on 30 July 2024.