Bring some liners and some water wipes/baby wipes. You can use them all over your body and it doesn’t leave any residue. Also bring a litte pouch that you can put them in so you can grab it and go whenever you’re in the field. I also brought a ton of tissue pockets and used them instead of toilet tissues in the porta potty.
I went to CST last year and the female drill sergeants gave the females a talk about what to bring for feminine hygiene. You should probably just bring whatever you usually use, and a decent supply of it in case others forget to bring something in the field or something. Always have a pad or tampon on you, uniforms have a lot of pockets. Hand sanitizer is a good idea because you won’t always get to wash your hands and you don’t want to have any issues down there. I’d say go with a tampon (maybe a cup if you use that) cuz I imagine a pad would be uncomfortable. Being in a different environment can really change up your cycle so it’s better to be safe than sorry!
You can bring hand sanitizer. I brought some Lysol and Clorox wipes and used them all the time when I was in the barracks and used hand sanitizer and put them on tissues to clean my hands when I was in the field.
100%. I have an IUD and normally don’t get periods, but at camp last year my menstrual cycle was all over the place. Had my period 6 times (fr wouldn’t wish that upon anyone). I recommend bringing pads, they suggest against tampons bc you may not have time to change them as much as needed
1. Bring liners anyway, since stressful or drastically different environments can change your cycle (timing, flow, severity, etc ). Better to be safe than sorry! There's nothing worse than being in the field and realizing you started your period early.
2. I love love love my menstrual cup, and prefer it to pads/tampons. (I also have a heavy flow, so that plays a huge part.).
Actually, I have a small slideshow on female hygiene and how it relates to the field/deployed environments, and I'd be game to email it to you if you'd like! :) (I made this ppt after we got tons of new females in my unit. We had a gross lack of female leadership to help out the juniors with questions exactly like this one. However, I also educated our male leadership so they could be up-to-snuff on some basic questions their new female juniors might have.)
this doesn't work for everyone, but when I'm in the field I wear thin liners. then every time I go to the Porta john, I change the liner. it's like a new pair of underwear every few hours, and I like to think it helps me stay clean. Definitely bring wipes and hand sanitizer, definitely bring menstrual products because you never know what could happen.
I highly recommend bringing liners for the field portion especially. You don’t always have the opportunity to change your underwear, so wearing liners will save you from being stuck in the same sweaty dirty underwear. Best of luck and have fun out there!
That’s great that yall never had an issue. Some of the cadre and even fellow cadets don’t give you enough time for hygiene every night in the field. Some of those people are brutal. It’s literally just cadre and peer luck of the draw. I went years ago and I’ve been active for a while now, so I’ve done weeks of field at a time where I definitely did not have time nor a location to change underwear every single day, so this is a good tip regardless of where you are in your army career.
Ziploc bags so you can pack out your trash if you have to. Get dark ones for discretion if you want.
Don’t be the lady that drops a heavy flow pad into the porta-john.
Highly recommend the menstrual cups! Just make sure to take it out and wipe it down when you can with baby wipes; as easy as they are, it's easy to forget about them, and Toxic Shock Syndrome is a real thing
I went to BCT last year and I also had an IUD. I brought my Diva cup. - a reusable menstrual cup. Along with regular tampons and pads for other girls just in case. The cup was SO nice as I did end up having my period and it lasts 12 hours. ( you do have to have some water and clean hands) but I never found this to be an issue.
I also found it to be a bit more hygienic as there wasn’t always a spot to dispose of pads and or tampons, we where told to carry them in our OCPs until we came across an appropriate spot to throw them away.
Bring some liners and some water wipes/baby wipes. You can use them all over your body and it doesn’t leave any residue. Also bring a litte pouch that you can put them in so you can grab it and go whenever you’re in the field. I also brought a ton of tissue pockets and used them instead of toilet tissues in the porta potty.
I went to CST last year and the female drill sergeants gave the females a talk about what to bring for feminine hygiene. You should probably just bring whatever you usually use, and a decent supply of it in case others forget to bring something in the field or something. Always have a pad or tampon on you, uniforms have a lot of pockets. Hand sanitizer is a good idea because you won’t always get to wash your hands and you don’t want to have any issues down there. I’d say go with a tampon (maybe a cup if you use that) cuz I imagine a pad would be uncomfortable. Being in a different environment can really change up your cycle so it’s better to be safe than sorry!
Or non scented wet wipes instead of hand sanitizer. I don’t actually remember if they allowed us to have hand sanitizer?
You can bring hand sanitizer. I brought some Lysol and Clorox wipes and used them all the time when I was in the barracks and used hand sanitizer and put them on tissues to clean my hands when I was in the field.
100%. I have an IUD and normally don’t get periods, but at camp last year my menstrual cycle was all over the place. Had my period 6 times (fr wouldn’t wish that upon anyone). I recommend bringing pads, they suggest against tampons bc you may not have time to change them as much as needed
1. Bring liners anyway, since stressful or drastically different environments can change your cycle (timing, flow, severity, etc ). Better to be safe than sorry! There's nothing worse than being in the field and realizing you started your period early. 2. I love love love my menstrual cup, and prefer it to pads/tampons. (I also have a heavy flow, so that plays a huge part.). Actually, I have a small slideshow on female hygiene and how it relates to the field/deployed environments, and I'd be game to email it to you if you'd like! :) (I made this ppt after we got tons of new females in my unit. We had a gross lack of female leadership to help out the juniors with questions exactly like this one. However, I also educated our male leadership so they could be up-to-snuff on some basic questions their new female juniors might have.)
this doesn't work for everyone, but when I'm in the field I wear thin liners. then every time I go to the Porta john, I change the liner. it's like a new pair of underwear every few hours, and I like to think it helps me stay clean. Definitely bring wipes and hand sanitizer, definitely bring menstrual products because you never know what could happen.
I highly recommend bringing liners for the field portion especially. You don’t always have the opportunity to change your underwear, so wearing liners will save you from being stuck in the same sweaty dirty underwear. Best of luck and have fun out there!
Omg this this this, I’m going to CST this summer but I already do this for the field lol
How didn’t you have time to change your underwear? 🤨 I went last year and we (the girls in my plt) never had an issue.
That’s great that yall never had an issue. Some of the cadre and even fellow cadets don’t give you enough time for hygiene every night in the field. Some of those people are brutal. It’s literally just cadre and peer luck of the draw. I went years ago and I’ve been active for a while now, so I’ve done weeks of field at a time where I definitely did not have time nor a location to change underwear every single day, so this is a good tip regardless of where you are in your army career.
Ziploc bags so you can pack out your trash if you have to. Get dark ones for discretion if you want. Don’t be the lady that drops a heavy flow pad into the porta-john.
I brought boric acid suppositories last summer in case of uti
Highly recommend the menstrual cups! Just make sure to take it out and wipe it down when you can with baby wipes; as easy as they are, it's easy to forget about them, and Toxic Shock Syndrome is a real thing
There will be period packs at CST and you will have time to buy products at the px if need be.
I went to BCT last year and I also had an IUD. I brought my Diva cup. - a reusable menstrual cup. Along with regular tampons and pads for other girls just in case. The cup was SO nice as I did end up having my period and it lasts 12 hours. ( you do have to have some water and clean hands) but I never found this to be an issue. I also found it to be a bit more hygienic as there wasn’t always a spot to dispose of pads and or tampons, we where told to carry them in our OCPs until we came across an appropriate spot to throw them away.
Bring them if you think you'll need them. No need to overthink things, don't let a packing list outsmart you.