{"id":24450,"date":"2017-08-04T04:57:10","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T04:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.faithful-to-nature.co.za\/natural-organic-blog\/?p=24450"},"modified":"2022-07-22T18:45:17","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T16:45:17","slug":"reusable-menstrual-cup-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.faithful-to-nature.co.za\/blog\/reusable-menstrual-cup-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Stepped It Up and Switched To the Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Don\u2019t read this article if intimate stories relating to female anatomy give you the squirms. Don\u2019t read it if your personal, environmental footprint isn\u2019t that personal to you. Don\u2019t read it if you prefer to live with your head in a box.<\/p>\n

Do read this article if you\u2019re a woman. Do read it if you\u2019re a man \u2014 one with a daughter, or a wife, or a sister, or a mother, or girlfriends in general, who might not mind \u2018unsolicited\u2019 advice about their personal care choices. Read this if the future of our planet and your impact on it matters to you. Read it if you believe consumers can bring about significant change through their purchase behaviour.<\/p>\n

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THE WASTEFUL PERIOD<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Did you know a single woman will use an average of 14 000 tampons or sanitary pads in her lifetime? Imagine that mound of unfortunate waste in a landfill, if it even makes it there. Waste that only exists because \u2018she\u2019 didn\u2019t know of a better way to part with it. The ironic reality is a woman\u2019s monthly cycle is not the wasteful part, merely the peculiar method with which we have become accustomed to \u2018capturing\u2019 and disposing of it.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the exposure of another solution entirely is heavily on the rise.<\/p>\n

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HEARD OF THE MENSTRUAL CUP?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

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As the name suggests, this solution of managing menstrual flow is done not by means of disposable sanitary products but through a multi-use silicone grade, flexible cup. You might know it by another name: MeLuna, Moon Cup<\/a>, Diva Cup, Goddess Cup<\/a>, Fleur Cup. I was surprised to find how many varieties were already on the market, and even more so when I realised how long they\u2019d been available.<\/p>\n

The US manufactured cup, The Keeper, was in fact introduced to market in 1987 already! I can only assume the plethora of disposable sanitary products available on supermarket shelves have held the monopoly for marketing all these many years. If you think about it, it\u2019s a marketer\u2019s dream product. It targets half the population on a monthly basis (not by choice), requiring a solution is unavoidable, and since the marketed solution was a \u2018consumed product\u2019, said target group is hooked by dependency, month after month, year after year.<\/p>\n

Thankfully since the uptake of the first silicone grade, UK manufactured cup in 2002, The Moon Cup<\/a>, and the increasing awareness on living sustainably in all areas of life, there is little reason to remain uninformed.<\/p>\n

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HOW THE CUP WORKS<\/span><\/h4>\n

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There\u2019s sufficient information on the web on this already, even some very helpful demo videos and product comparisons, for me to not need to go into detail here. Essentially it\u2019s a flexible silicone cup, that, by means of dexterous fingering (yes, I just said that) is inserted into the vaginal canal, where it sits snuggly, collecting your cycle\u2019s released fluids until you need to remove it, empty it out, rinse or wipe clean and re-insert.<\/p>\n

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WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER IT<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

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There is a detailed list of considerations for switching to the menstrual cup on Wikipedia<\/a>. In short:<\/p>\n

Will it save you money? <\/strong>For sure. If you’re spending an average of R100 monthly, one menstrual cup which can be used for 10 years, will save you about R12 000. That’s more than a flight to Europe.<\/p>\n

Will you reduce your wasteful impact on the environment?<\/strong> Absolutely. The average sanitary product takes 25 years to begin breaking down, and you would be contributing thousands upon thousands in your life. One cup can last a decade if looked after.<\/p>\n

In my experience, some self-lived honesty is a more effective way of transition a concept from \u2018vague notion\u2019 to something \u2018genuinely worth considering\u2019. Over the last 3 years of using the cup, I\u2019ve amassed enough of this to share a more relatable version of life with the cup. I hope, at the very least, it will make the concept seem less intimidating the next time your cycle rolls around and you\u2019re shelling out another hundred bucks on sanitary products (money better spent on chocolates).<\/p>\n

But enough about the theory. As Olivia Newton John says, \u201cLet\u2019s get physical.\u201d<\/p>\n

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THE BEGINNINGS OF SHY VERSUS CURIOUS<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

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I grew up in a household not particularly perturbed by physical intimacy or awkwardness, nor making a big deal from everyday things. When womanhood knocked on my door, my mom handed me a box of tampons and told me to get comfortable with my body.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to the curse,\u201d she said with just a tiny smattering of empathy and closed the bathroom door.<\/p>\n

Little-girl-me stared horrified and wide-eyed for a moment, wondering why I was getting a stash of tiny torpedo-shaped devices when all my friends had the friendly-looking, un-invasive, winged contraptions.<\/p>\n

She interjected something about an instruction manual with pictures and that she would be right there if I didn\u2019t come right. Not awkward at all.<\/p>\n

After the initial horror and months of adjusting, I was secretly grateful to my mom. As invasive as tampons were to a young girl, they offered me far more freedom and flexibility than my friends had when it came to playing sport and wardrobe options.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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When knowledge of the MoonCup filtered into my life almost fifteen years later, the first barrier to… erm… entry \u2014 getting over the physicality of it all \u2014 no longer bothered me. Thanks again, mom. I was more curious and intrigued. But in having shared my experience with friends, the \u2018eeek-factor\u2019 is clearly one of the main hesitations to using a menstrual cup. And I can only think this must stem from how your menstrual journey started.<\/p>\n

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KNOW THYSELF<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

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What a strange thing to say in this context, right? It\u2019s more often touted in reference to spiritual growth or conviction in vocational direction. Consider this. Your physical body journeys through life with you daily. It reflects your likes and dislikes, your lifestyle choices and even a barometer on your health.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know what your body feels like when in a healthy, normal state, how will you detect abnormalities in time? If you don\u2019t know how to tickle your own pleasure buttons, how can you ever share that level of vulnerability with your partner? There are myriad benefits towards getting over the eek factor. But if your womanhood story began with the winged contraptions I was never initially privy to, I can understand your resistance. It\u2019s not what you know. But ask yourself this. Are you really going to let your self-shyness be the reason more and more preventable waste ends up in landfills? And is it a logical mental block to have if you\u2019ve already been intimate with a partner or plan to or have already given birth to a human being. Surely, no.<\/p>\n

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SOME LOGISTICAL TRUTHS YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE USING THE CUP<\/span><\/h4>\n

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There are two basic ways to fold the cup for easy insertion. One version looks like a C-shape, the other one feels like a ninja origami move and, in my opinion, works better. Watch a handful of YouTube demo videos and thank the brave women who came before you for sharing this. Then get stuck in, literally.<\/p>\n