A few men from Germany thought they had a wonderful idea for a product aimed primarily at women but it has completely backfired.

According to an Instagram post translated from German, these fellows lived with women back in 2010 and were horrified at the lack of a “good solution” for discreetly disposing of tampons and sanitary pads.

So a decade later, they launched Pinky Gloves—a product to be used specifically to avoid getting menstrual blood on one’s hands while swapping out products and to hide tampons from any sensitive souls who might look in the trash bin after them.

Image credits: DrJenGunter

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Image credits: pinky_gloves

The Pinky Gloves gained attention after Dr. Jen Gunter (who people call “Twitter’s resident gynecologist”) made a tweet about them.

Eventually, it snowballed into a huge wave of backlash, crashing into the German entrepreneurs. To their credit, the company acknowledged the criticism it has been receiving but didn’t say anything concrete.

Could things have ever gotten this far if they had asked for, received, and listened to input from women?

However, many women think Pinky Gloves are useless

Image credits: DrJenGunter

Image credits: DrJenGunter

General practitioner, medical researcher, and founder of PrimeHealth Clinical Research, Iris Gorfinkel, M.D., told Bored Panda the backlash online doesn’t surprise her. “Is it a useless product? I would suggest that it is. If we women do get blood on our hands after changing our menstrual products, we are likely to wash that off as we have done for the millennia.”

There are a lot more serious menstrual problems out there. Even figuring out what’s normal and what’s abnormal about the way you have your period can be a challenge. “Typically, normal periods last anywhere from 21 to 35 days, and of course, are influenced by things like stress, weight, exercise, and eating disorders,” Gorfinkel explained.

“They’re often accompanied by cramps, and cramping is normal to some degree, but some women experience cramps that are caused by uterine contractions and are of the same degree as when a woman is in labor. These can really be horrific. And a lot of women do not realize that cramps are easily and readily treatable with anti-inflammatories, like Naproxen, which is easily available over the counter. Or if they’re bad, one should see a doctor to make sure that there’s no pathology that could be causing it. For many, treating it with a birth control pill can be very helpful too.”

Another fairly common period problem is abnormal uterine bleeding. “Things like an ultrasound or screening for sexually transmitted infections may be helpful,” Gorfinkel said. “Just try to understand, is there another underlying problem? Could there be fibroids? Could there be endometriosis that’s responsible for this?”

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Then there’s the premenstrual syndrome or PMS. “Women [going through it] will often experience bloating, headache, breast tenderness, there can be mood swings, anxiety, and irritability, especially the week before the period.”

“This is easily treatable. A diary always helps an actual effect for any of these problems using a menstrual app is usually helpful as well; recording what exactly is happening and when during the cycle.”

Gorinkel also wanted to touch on infections. “sexually transmitted infections are extremely common, and a lot of women don’t realize they’re going on. So where there’s a lot of sexual partners or changing sexual partners, it’s always a good idea to get screened,” she said.

Even though the doctor personally suggests a screening every six months, different medical professionals might suggest different timeframes, but regular screening makes a lot of sense if the sexual partners are changing or if a woman’s body is sending her any signals that something goes wrong, like abnormal bleeding, painful intercourse, and so on. Plus, one has to keep in mind that half of the time sexually transmitted infections are asymptomatic. This makes getting checked regularly even more important.

“We have a lot of fish to fry in a visit, which is typically 15 minutes long with a primary care physician like me,” Gorfinkel said. “And I would suggest that using a Pinky Glove doesn’t even make the list.”

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As much as Iris tried to remain diplomatic, she thinks women won’t really benefit from this product. “There’s nothing foreign about a person touching their own body. Should we wash our hands after changing a menstrual product? Of course, we should. But do we need a glove? I think it’s just extra landfill, quite frankly.”

We already have plenty of things to make sure people get can through the inconvenience of menstruation, but accidentally touching blood isn’t high on the list of priorities.

In fact, some argue that increasing the stigma of menstruation by acting like the sight of a used tampon is so horrifying that an entire product needs to be created and carried around by half the population just to ensure no one will ever catch a glimpse of period blood in the trash is probably the opposite of helpful.

And it’s hard to disagree.

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