A Brief Chat About Period Products.

How a woman goes about handling the inconvenient mess of her period has been a problem all throughout history!

 For the most part women used woven cloth or vegetable fibres, animal pelts, sea sponges, moss, wool, rags (literally) and linen as padding. Simply washed and reused. In the 1920's the pad was mass produced as a disposable product used with a belt. It was in the early 1980's that adhesive tape was used and the pad was stuck to the underwear themselves. A surprising amount of women still use their own reusable pads and can easily purchase them online at places like Lunapads.com.

 As for tampons they have been around for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptian women used softened papyrus, Ancient Africans used rolls of grass, women in the South Pacific used sea sponges. Basically, whatever the hell they could find. Tampons were mass produced in the early 1900's. They have always been sponges or rolls of fibre, usually with a cord. Interesting to note, 97% of tampon using European women prefer digital tampons (without an applicator) to 3-5% of North American women. Tampons pose a risk to women though. The bleach used to make the cotton white is suspected to cause cancer, they pollute the ground water through flushing, and cause Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) when left in too long and bacteria builds up.

150 years ago women in India began using a rubber cup inserted into the vagina to collect the menstrual blood. When the cup was full they would dump it and clean it and reinsert. Zero waste. Well now they are made out of silicone and mass produced as products like The Diva Cup. You simply fold the small cup in half, slide it in like a tampon, make sure it's unfolded and be on your way. It can be left in for up to 12 hours, and when used correctly there is no mess at all. Swimming is finally a non issue, as is sleeping. There is a learning curve with the cup method and for some women its a little gross to get up close and personal with your period. I find it fascinating. I have been using the diva cup for 4 years and I will likely never return to pads and definitely will never again use tampons. I could go on for hours about the benefits of the cup. It costs around $35 and lasts a year or two with proper care.

The average North American woman will use 10-15,000 disposable pads or tampons. That coupled with the potential health hazards was enough for me to make the switch! I highly recommend it, as I will never go back!

Yay for eco periods! Heehee.