Pads or "sanitary napkins" (despite this hospital sounding name they are not sterile, and neither are tampons) are the most popular among girls just starting their periods. Or at least they are what your mom is most likely to buy for you. Companies like Kotex compete with each other to improve on the basic pad by making them in special shapes or adding wings. Basically a pad is a pad, choose one that is comfortable for you. They come in sizes from very thin - "panty liners" - to thick and very absorbant - "maxi pads".
Always avoid scented or deodorant pads. They don't hide the smell, they just make a new smell which is like menstrual fluid mixed with air freshener. The chemicals used to make those scents can cause allergic reactions like burning and itching.
Advantages:
Pads are easy to use, especially when you are just starting out. You just stick them in your panties and go. When you are done with them you just throw them away.
They allow you to see how much you are bleeding, and the different kinds of fluid your body makes, so you can learn what to expect from your cycle.
Pads seem to be healthier than tampons for some women who get vaginal infections, because they stay outside of the body.
Disadvantages:
To some women pads are too bulky. They can chafe, and feel uncomfortable. especially when the weather is hot and you are sweating. Sometimes the sticky adhesive gives out, and the pad will slide around in your underwear or bunch up, resulting in the dreaded side staining.
Most of the disadvantages of pads are enviromental. If you believe in recycling and trying to preserve the environment, you should know the following things. You might want to try to use alternatives to pads, or just use pads less often.
Most pads are made of paper pulp bleached white with chlorine gas, and the toxic chemicals from this process goes from the factories into the rivers and oceans where it harms all sorts of wildlife, including humans. The problem didn't start with pads, the same process is used to whiten all paper products, like paper towels and toilet paper and writing paper. Fortunately some companies are beginning to make oxygen bleached, unbleached and recycled paper products, but major santitary napkin manufacturers are not showing any signs of changing their ways. Which is very silly, since it actually makes very little difference whether your pad is ultra white. I mean, who's going to see it?
In addition, all pads have plastic backs, synthetic covers and the special ultra thin ones have some kind of plastic compound in their centers. This makes them leak proof, which is nice for your panties, but bad for the environment. Like disposable diapers, pads go into landfills and stay there, because it takes plastic years and years to decompose. The pad you use today will still be around, somewhere, when you are an old lady.
Also, in the last few years pad makers have been wrapping each pad in plastic wrap, and putting all the pads in plastic bags. So each time you change your pad you put one plastic wrapper, one or more plastic strips and a used pad in the garbage. They used to be just stacked unwrapped in cardboard boxes, which I think was much better.
If you are concerned about the environment, but like pads, try buying
pads in health food stores, which often carry products that are made in
more environmentally friendly ways. Or write to your favorite pad's maker
and ask them to make unbleached pads, and to use less packaging.