New Design Of Women’s Underwear Could Disrupt Feminine Hygiene Market

Digital health has made a splash in the world of women whether it be a period or fertility tracker app on a smartphone or at home cervical screening devices. Entrepreneur Miki Agrawal is breaking away from the world of digital feminine health with her innovative underwear meant to make women’s “time of the month” easier and more cost efficient.



Agrawal is the CEO and founder of THINX, a company that produces three types of absorbent underwear for women that is meant to do the job of a pad or a tampon in a more comfortable, effective fashion. (You may have heard of the brand Knixteen which also produces period panties for the teen market. According to their website, “THINX is committed to breaking the taboo surrounding menstruation.”

A study conducted by UNICEF found that 1 in 10 school-age African girls do not attend school when they have their period. Water Aid further found that, “95 percent of girls in Ghana sometimes miss school due to menses and 86 percent and 53 percent of girls in Garissa and Nairobi (respectively) in Kenya miss a day or more of school every two months. In Ethiopia, 51 percent of girls miss between one and four days of school per month because of menses and 39 percent reported reduced performance.”

Forbes explained that THINX operates on a “buy-one-give-one model.” With every pair of THINX sold, a donation is made to Uganda based AFRIPads, which trains women in developing countries to sell reusable pads to local women at affordable prices.

With their absorbent underwear models, THINX asserts that, “By reimagining feminine hygiene products to provide support, comfort, confidence, and peace of mind, we aim to eliminate shame, empowering women and girls around the world.”

The underwear line could also reduce the impact on landfills. On top of that, tampons and pads can be expensive, to the tune of $120 per year for the average woman,according to Jezebel.

A pack of seven THINX panties, to last the average duration of a woman’s menstrual cycle, cost about $200 and are meant to last about two years. This saves the average woman about $40 per year, according to the company. Since the underwear are stain and leak resistant, the amount of money spent on new underwear and extra washes of clothes ruined by leaks decreases.

THINX isn’t Agrawal’s first startup. She also launched Tushy, “a modern bidet attachment…easy-to-install hose fixture that turns your average toilet into a tushy-cleaning, personal hygiene wonderland,” according to their website.

With her innovation, Agrawal hopes to shatter the negative stereotypes around menstruation while simultaneously disrupting the multibillion dollar feminine hygiene market.

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