Fun and eco-friendly periods!

Why I switched: My body

I’ve been menstruating for about 10 years now. Before I started, we had “the talk” in 5th grade about our periods, when they would separate the girls into one classroom and the boys would stay behind. In that talk, all our options were disposable pads and tampons. No wonder I never considered any other options!

In my 10 years of experience, I’ve had all kinds of nasty side effects from disposables. I’ve had major pain during my period, not the normal cramps, but pain radiating from my vagina. I can’t really describe it any better than that, but I just thought it was normal. Sometimes, no matter what I would do, I would just get a horrible smell from my pads, and I thought that was normal. Any time I would use a tampon, I could feel it, even though I was assured that I was inserting it as far as I could. Removing a tampon was always something I dreaded…It felt like the tampon was clawing at the walls of my vagina! How can all of these side effects be normal?

They’re not normal! Because the normal disposable pads and tampons which we are taught to use at an early age (usually these programs are funded by big names like Tampax and Always) are not natural, at all!

Most people would think that those pretty white pads and tampons are soft and comfy cotton, but they’re not. They are made mostly from rayon and a few other materials, which all, in their rawest forms, are wood! Wood which we use for…Building houses! Eating at a dinner table! Why would anyone believe that using these fibers is useful for absorbing menstrual blood? You wouldn’t put a tree branch in your vagina to absorb anything!

The wood fibers have to go through major chemical treatments to turn into a fluffy, white substance. One of the major problems with disposables is the treatment of this material with a chemical called dioxin. Dioxin can bleach these materials and that sounds all nice and good, until you realize that dioxin has been listed as carcinogenic by the EPA, and is banned in some countries! Why can’t these companies use normal bleaches? Well, even if companies try to switch to a more natural substance, the EPA reports that a side-effect of bleaching the wood pulp is dioxin! If we’re going to stick things in our vaginas, why would these companies blatantly be poisoning us?? Even more chemicals are added to pads and tampons to add extra absorbency and scents.

Now everything starts to make sense! Pain from my vagina from a simple pad? Maybe I’m allergic to one of the many chemicals made to make it more absorbent. Pain taking out a tampon? Possibly because of the fibers coming loose and scraping my vagina. In some of my research on reusables, many women tend to report having less intense cramps after switching to a menstrual cup. These things do not seem like a coincidence to me!

After reading all of this, I was just plain fed up, and that’s when I ordered my Diva Cup, and then a week later, my reusable pads. And so far, my period is wonderful. Complete peace of mind that I’m not using any cancer causing, harmful chemicals. And no more pain! (Besides cramps!) The Diva Cup can be left in for 12 hours with no scary risks of infection because of its collecting instead of absorbing ability. And my reusable pads seem to absorb SO much better because of using cotton and fleece, rather than wood pulp.

Please feel free to ask any more questions! I have a ton more information about this kind of stuff, but these are the main points which made me switch.