How to Clean Discharge from Underwear

Proper hygiene is a very essential part of keeping yourself healthy. This includes keeping your clothing laundered and sanitary, with one of the most important things being your underwear.

While underwear isn’t a widely discussed topic in the public eye, it is still important to be informed and aware of how to properly clean your underwear of things like discharge and sweat.

Removing tough stains can be very frustrating, especially with all the different products available on the market. This article will give you several different discharge removal methods to try out. You may find one that perfectly suits you and your needs.

While choosing the right discharge removal strategy may not seem very important, doing so will keep you healthy and free of potentially harmful and infection-causing bacteria. Plus, your underwear will look a lot nicer without those stains!

 If you have sensitive skin or skin allergies, be careful testing different detergents, but don’t be afraid to try different options. Be aware of what ingredients are in the products. Try out a few and decide on a strategy that works best for you and your lifestyle.

Why Do I Have Discharge in My Underwear?

First, it will help to understand what those stains on your underwear are actually from, and why they’re so tough to get out.

It may be an embarrassing topic for some, but it’s just science! Discharge is completely natural. It contains carbohydrates, amino acids, and proteins, which actually have a color-altering effect on your underwear.

This is why it’s so important to find a quality solution that will help prevent these stains from hanging around, and keep your underwear looking and feeling like new.

Aside from using typical laundry detergents, there are several different strategies for properly washing and sanitizing undergarments.

Rinsing

Before you do anything else, simply start by giving your underwear a good rinse after you wear them, instead of letting them sit in the hamper. This strategy works best for blood especially, since cold water will prevent the stain from setting into the fabric and will wash most of it out.

We all get lazy sometimes and prefer to toss our dirty clothes aside until laundry day but working this into your routine can make a huge difference in staining prevention. To go a step further, you can let your underwear soak in cold water before a wash, though it isn’t required.

Grab a Lemon

For lighter fabrics, you can actually use lemon juice to dissolve the stain. All you have to do is apply the lemon juice directly on the stain and let it sit for a while.

After it’s been working for a while, just toss it in with the rest of your laundry in the wash. While this is great for whites and lights, this is NOT recommended for dark fabrics, as the acidity from the juice will discolor your clothes.

Plant-Based Detergents

Some people with sensitive skin or certain allergies should be more careful when searching for detergents. Certain chemicals can irritate sensitive skin and cause reactions. It’s very important to pay attention to which ingredients are in your detergent, and to stay away from ones that cause issues.

People with sensitive skin or skin allergies can turn to plant-based alternatives that don’t have any harsh chemicals. This is a great choice for people wanting to avoid irritating their skin after washing.

A great plant-based detergent for this is the Seventh Generation Ultra-Concentrated detergent. It’s perfect for anyone looking for a detergent that is gentle on skin while maintaining a powerful, deep clean.

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A common misconception with plant-based cleaning products is that they are less effective, but this is false. Plus, since it has no dyes, fragrances, or artificial brighteners, your skin won’t have to suffer at the expense of clean underwear!

Typically, plant-based and natural products are a little more expensive to buy, but if you find the right product, it will be worth the cost. Test out a few detergents to see which works best for you.

Use Table Salt

An effective secret to clean discharge from underwear is probably sitting in your kitchen right now. Regular table salt is actually an effective stain remover for discharge, and even for oil stains.

Rubbing table salt into stained clothes and letting it sit can help pull out deep stains in the washing machine. This is a great solution for anyone in a pinch with no other cleaning methods available. It’s also much cheaper than a store-bought stain remover.

Contact Solution

If you find yourself travelling or in a pinch and need a quick fix for a stain, just reach for some contact solution.

You can also just use a regular saline solution, if you happen to have any on standby, since they are essentially the same thing. Saturating your stain with the solution will help lift and lighten the stain before you wash it.

Enzymatic Sprays

A popular stain removal product is enzymatic spray. These sprays are composed of elements that dissolve the proteins in your discharge stains. They effectively remove them when applied directly to the stain.

People often just put a scoop of stain remover in the washing machine for the whole load, but this doesn’t achieve the same results.

Targeting the stain directly with an enzymatic spray like this one is much more effective. These sprays also work great for removing blood stains, but you may have to use more product to completely get it out.

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Make Your Own Stain Remover

If you prefer to take a more natural approach when cleaning your clothes, you can actually throw together your own stain removing paste at home. All you need is baking soda or aspirin and some water.

You can take a spoonful of baking soda and a few drops of water and make a grainy paste that will target your stains. You can also do this with crushed up aspirin. Apply the paste directly onto the stain, let it sit for a few hours or overnight, then throw it in the washer.

To go one step further, if you have an extra toothbrush laying around (I don’t suggest using your own,) you can scrub the baking soda into the stain to make sure it really penetrates the fabric and reaches the stain. Using baking soda is a great way to get rid of pesky stains naturally and save a few bucks while you’re at it.

Hydrogen Peroxide

This is a tried and true method that has been used for a very long time. Hydrogen peroxide has been used for cleaning and treating stains for many years. It works to dissolve the bacteria and proteins in the stain, removing a lot of it before you put it through the washing machine.

Similar to the baking soda paste method, you can scrub the stain with peroxide and a toothbrush to make sure you reach the stain and agitate it enough that it will come out in the wash easily.

Time to Remove Discharge From Your Underwear

In conclusion, discharge in your underwear probably isn’t something you go around mentioning very often. It may be embarrassing to think about or discuss, but it’s completely natural and happens to everybody.

Finding stains in your underwear from discharge can be very frustrating, but don’t feel overwhelmed. There are many solutions to fix the problem. If you don’t want to spend a fortune on stain removers, try an at-home remedy, like the baking soda or aspirin paste, or use some table salt.

About the author

Kelsey Summers

Kelsey is the lead editor of Undywear.com. She's a fashionista who's written for Glamour, GQ and others. She enjoys breaking the stigma and taboo around underwear and writing about all things fashion.