Seriously guys, you don't want to read this. This is a women only post! If you continue to read, don't blame me that I didn't warn you :-) Scroll down ladies to hear about my review of going green with women issues.
Ok, I'm not sure where to exactly start, but a bit of background so you know what led me to go this route. We are going to talk about cycles, monthly cycles that is. For years I used the common methods of tampons and pads. But as the years wore on and the more I read I realized that I needed to make some changes. Tampons are not a healthy choice. They have chemicals to make them so absorbent (the less absorbent they are the less chemicals), chemicals that should not be going into our bodies. Now granted it seems almost like a futile attempt to keep the chemical monsters at bay that we are bombarded with in our world. But keeping something in close contact with your skin for that many hours out of each month is one small step to keep them at bay. I had heard story after story of women whose odd symptoms vanished when they stopped using tampons. These symptoms varied, and were generally related to how bad their cycles played out. So I switched to pads. Which of course was a silly move as they too have chemicals, one in which gave me my own irritating symptoms. So my next move was to cloth pads. I have been using these for at least 9 years. Now, when a big day came up during my heavy days I would use a tampon, so I wasn't completely monster free, but those were kept for days that I would need to be out all day. I've been pretty happy about that transition as I didn't suffer any side effects from them. But they do have the con of having to be washed. That in itself is not terrible, but can come with it's own problems. For example before I had made enough of my own pads, and if I was out of backup options, and we had a back load of laundry......well it was either do a quick load, or run to the store.
Ok, so that was my story thus far in my womanly journey, until I happened upon a site with a link to a product that I remember reading about years ago, but at that time had no inclination to even look into further. Some of you may have heard about these yourself, and if not you may be in for a surprise. There is another option besides tampons and pads, and that would be a menstrual cup. To see what I am talking about please take some time to read HERE about the product that I chose to buy.
Now that you know what it is all about let me tell you my experience with it. I've only had one cycle with it so far, but wow, what a difference. I will say that our healthy eating has made cramps a thing of the past, and now with the moon cup it almost seems like I'm not in that mode of the month :-) There was definitely a learning curve the first day, but by the next day I was getting the hang of it and by the third I felt totally comfortable using it. On day two (my heaviest day) we had our zoo outing. If you read my post on it, you know it was a pretty crazy day. It would have been a nightmare had I been using tampons or pads as I would have had to been to the bathroom every hour, certainly no more than an hour an a half. But I was able to go four hours, and even then I didn't *need* to go to the bathroom just for a change, but because I had to pee! With the cup you have everything you need with you :-)
The first day I was a bit nervous having to put the cup in. Who wouldn't be? It has this stem, and supposedly it is there to be able to pull the device out. UM, NOT ON YOUR LIFE. Trust me on that one!!! I'm not sure if it is there for some FDA regulation or what, but let's just say if you pull on it you will feel like your insides are trying to be turned inside out. I had exercised and gardened during the first day without any problems at all. By the next day, on the way to the zoo, I had decided to snip the stem half way up. That made sitting more comfortable as every once in a while I would feel the stem when sitting. It wasn't painful, but I could feel it. That made the van ride feel like any other van ride. However when we got to the zoo the snipped stem was rubbing me the wrong way. So off to the bathroom to snip the rest off. And that made all the difference in the world. Again, you do not need to use the stem to get the cup out. It made our four hour trek through the zoo feel like any other day of the regular non cycle month :-) Seriously I am not sure how I've lived this long without this device. Now I suppose I will have no excuse on those heavy days to be lazy :-) If you have any questions please feel free to ask, I get all my comments sent to my email first and I will not publish any of the comments. Leave me your email, if you don't have a blog, and I will respond privately.
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