According to “experts,” you should replace your underwear every six months

How often do you replace your underwear?

I guarantee you, it’s not nearly enough.

According to experts, you should replace your undergarments every 6-9 months or every 50 washes.

That means tossing the old ones and getting a new collection.

Recent articles in the “Financial Times” and “The Guardian” explain that, according to health experts, bacteria linger in the fibres.

Some viruses, bacteria, and fungal pathogens don’t get eliminated by washing at temperatures below 60 °C. Even more upsetting, “The average pair of adult underwear contains an average of 0.1g of feces,” according to the article.

But before you toss all your undies, there are people who don’t agree with the findings.

In an interview with Today.com, Dr. Jen Gunter, OB-GYN and author of The Vagina Bible, said she strongly disagrees with this claim and explained that underwear does not suddenly become dangerous after a specific time period.

She explained that it reflects cultural anxiety around the vulva rather than science.” Many people grow up hearing the vagina is fragile, dirty, or constantly at risk of infection, which fuels rigid hygiene rules that are not medically necessary.”

Dr. Chavone Momon-Nelson, an OB-GYN at UPMC in Pennsylvania, echoed those sentiments, explaining that social media often turns suggestions into hard rules, even when evidence does not support them.

So while you should have respectable, non-withering underwear, replacing them after 6 months might be overkill.