Protective underwear that is used to collect loose or liquid waste has been patented. The underwear comprises a pants-shaped chassis with a front and rear waist, belly, rear back, crotch portion and a pair of leg openings disposed on opposite sides of the chassis. The crotch portion is located between the underwear’s leg openings and has a front and a rear section. The front and rear waist and belly and rear back portions are joined together at the sides of the chassis. The underwear comprises an insert with an insert sheet that surrounds a liquid absorbent core. Each leg opening has a first and second arcuate section and an intermediate section. The first and second arcuate sections contain an inner end located adjacent to the core. The intermediate section is also located adjacent to the core between the inner ends of the first and second arcuate sections. The front waist portion of the chassis includes transversely oriented elastic threads extending parallel to one another. These elastic threads encompass a portion of the chassis from the front waist portion into the belly portion to a point adjacent to the crotch portion. The underwear additionally comprises two linear longitudinally oriented elastic threads, which extend on opposite sides of the core and outside of the core’s margins and between the leg openings. The threads intersect one of the belly portion’s transversely oriented elastic threads and the rear back portion to form an enclosed, rectangular gasket compartment for the liquid absorbent core. The gasket closely conforms to the core’s perimeter to prevent liquid leakage. The first and second arcuate section of each of the leg openings is elasticized by one arcuate elastic thread. One elastic thread of the first and second arcuate sections terminates at an inner end and is spaced apart by a gap. The gap is located at the intermediate section and a portion of one of the longitudinally oriented elastic threads is located close to the gap in the intermediate section of one of the leg openings. A portion of one of the threads is located close to the gap and cooperates with the arcuate elastic threads to elasticize the leg openings to enable them to closely conform to the wearer’s legs.