I can't bring myself to use tampons.
Although I would like to help the environment, I just find pads more practical for my life than a mooncup.
I do wish they didn't fill up so much landfill though because that's bad :(
Why is re-using nappies less gross than re-using pads?
I'm just curious because poo contains lots of bacteria and can carry parasites and in my opinion smells worse than blood! Whereas you wouldn't catch any blood-borne diseases from your own blood, it doesn't smell unless it sits damp for a long time.
who wouldve thought that such a simple subject would be such a huge thing for debate. i understand the whole no using one (i isnt something id do as i said earlier) but remember reusable pads was the norm for so long, like grandmothers and great grandmothers did it. its not as god awful as its being made out to be.
its not for a lot of people yeah but jeez calm yourselfs down, no-ones forcing you.
Show me the skyline and I'll show you decadence,
a subtle reminder of hearts filled with loneliness,
give me your worst words and I'll bring the sticks and stones,
I'd hate to use them,
you can't shake it with broken bones...
Yes, well said. And more and more people, thankfully, are finally realizing that they need to be more eco-friendly. One person won't cure the world, but everybodys effort will play a part. Little things, even.
And flowerfairy.. i am sorry if I gave off that impression. I was a bit snobby. I feel bad. I really am not closed-minded, I try very hard not to be and to look at everything from different points of view. To each their own, of course, and to my own I just think it's a little gross and as I ride my bike more often, turn off the lights when absolutely not needed, picking up trash and making sure recyclables go in the correct bins.. ect.. I am at least doing a little part in trying to make things better, and I find the cups and washing pads disgusting for myself. Periods are ew and smelly and I need clean products, you know? But anyway.. I do apologize for my snobbyness.
Thank you. I appreciate that you've taken the time to explain yourself a little further. Although, I will say that anything you can clean and/or sterilize yourself is more sanitary than a tampon or pad. Tampons and pads are NOT sterile.
I found this Jess.. its long but its quite interesting:
The following content has been hidden - Reason : loooooooooooong
Q:Please tell us what you can about toxic shock syndrome and the general dangers of tampons. Are there any health risks with sanitary towels? M F, Washington, DC.......
A:Toxic shock syndrome, which was identified in the US in 1980, is a potentially fatal severe infection of the blood, caused by a toxin called TSST-1. This toxin is produced by the otherwise benign staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which is present in the warm moist parts of the human body, including the vagina. In nearly a third of the population it tends to sit there without doing much harm. Although we don't understand how the staph germ gets converted into this toxin, the majority of cases occur in young women, and are mainly caused by using tampons.
The current statistics are that one in 30,000 to one in a million women will contract TSS each year. In the US, the estimates are even higher: 17 cases a year of tampon related TSS for every 100,000 women.
The symptoms we think of as TSS are the body's wholesale effort to fight extreme poisoning. These usually include flu-like symptoms, sudden high temperature, dizziness, headache, sore throat and aching muscles, vomiting and diarrhea, low blood pressure and a rash which appears to be sunburn. The danger phase begins with a sudden drop in blood pressure and respiratory failure. If caught early enough, TSS can be treated quickly with antibiotics in hospital; the main problem is identifying the problem.
Left untreated, TSS can lead to kidney or respiratory failure or even heart attack. If you do survive, nearly every major organ can be affected. Victims typically lose their hair, fingernails and toenails, and often their concentration and memory, for as long as a year. Some women are left with liver and kidney problems or deafness and arthritis.
Two-thirds of all cases occur the under 25s, with the 15-19 year olds most at risk, largely because their immune systems may not be fully developed.
In the UK, the Women's Environmental Network, and an organization called the Alice Kilvert Tampon Alert (AKTA), run by the parents of Alice, a 15 year old who died of TSS, have been at the forefront of campaigns to identify tampons as a significant health risk. Although medicine doesn't really know what it is in tampons that triggers the production of toxins, the AKTA says that the surface of the tampon may provide a place for the bacteria to colonize. Although the longer the tampon is in place, the more bacteria can multiply, TSS has also occurred in women who change tampons regularly.
WEN notes that tampons absorb a goodly number of vaginal secretions, along with menstrual blood. This can lead to vaginal dryness, which in turn can actually damage vaginal walls, leading to peeling of the mucous membrane. WEN has gathered statistics showing that a fifth of all tampon users suffer from "micro ulceration", which heals between periods, but whose long term significance isn't known. It's thought that this micro ulceration can lead to larger ulceration and increase bleeding. Up to three-quarters of all tampon users have some alteration to the mucous membrane of the vagina.
The greatest risk factor appears to be super absorbent tampons, which appear to increase the risk of damage and ulceration. They also contain more rayon, which appears to change the chemical environment of the vagina; fibres from tampons have been found in vaginal walls. By drying out and damaging the vaginal walls, the tampons may also make it easier for the bacterial toxins to make their way into the bloodstream.
Rayon, a synthetic fibre, is also potentially dangerous because the process of processing the eucalyptus woodpulp involves the use of chlorinated compounds, which causes dioxin as a byproduct, minute remnants of which remain in the fibre. The US Environmental Protection Agency has gone on record to say that dioxin causes cancer in humans and that there may be no safe level. Increasing evidence points to dioxin in santitary products as a major cause of endometriosis (see
WDDTY vol 5 no 10).
Although the US mandates that absorbancy rates be standardized and the individual rates of every brand be published on the outside packaging, they are not regulated in the UK.
The best form of protection is to avoid tampons altogether, particularly if you are under 25. But if you must use them, AKTA recommends that you use the lowest absorbency possible and a low-fibre loss brand, and change all tampons every four to six hours.
In case you're feeling complacent about using sanitary towels, you might wish to see what the WEN has uncovered about these. Up until 1989, all sanitary towels were made from paper pulp entirely bleached with chlorine. This process not only produces dioxin but many hundreds of other organo-chlorine compounds, which reek havoc with human health, making their way into our food and water supplies (see WDDTY issue on pesticides, vol 6 no 3). However, now that the dangers of chlorine bleaching have been well publicized, some manufacturers have attempted to produce pulp bleached by alternative means. The best so far is a process called Chemo Thermo Mechnical Pulp (CTMP), which uses hydrogen peroxide and appears to be safer; beware of methods called "oxygen bleaching" which use a smaller percentage of chlorine gas and still release OC compounds. British cotton only tampons are bleached with hydrogen peroxide and sodium hypochlorite.
The new style super-thin towels being pounced on by most manufacturers these days contain super-absorbent materials as polyacrylate gels the same substances which are used in disposable nappies. The initial studies which passed the US and UK governments demonstrate that the toxicity is low. However, we do know that workers in plants which manufacture these gels suffer eye and lung damage. And the bottom line is we don't know the long term dangers of these gels on women (or, for that matter, babies), or whether the plastic coverings used will be breeding grounds for illnesses like toxic shock syndrome.
Your safest bet is to stick with the older style cotton towels, to avoid bleached varieties and perhaps to investigate the idea of reuseable toweling, which are both good for you and the environment.
Huh. Turns out I couldn't use it anyways as it increases the risk of endometriosis and I already have that.
The following content has been hidden - Reason : Long
Two public interest groups have notified the manufacturers of Menstrual Cups that they fail to warn users of an increased risk of endometriosis.
An estimated 7 million women in the U.S. suffer from Endometriosis, with millions more worldwide. The definitive cause of the disease remains unknown, though it is believed to be multi-factorial in origin, including genetic and immune factors, as well as exposure to environmental toxicants. Research has demonstrated that the retention of menstrual discharge promotes the backflow of endometrial cells from the uterus into the pelvic cavity, which is believed to increase the risk of endometriosis in some women.
Menstrual Cups are products placed in the vagina or over the cervix during menstruation to retain menstrual fluid for later disposal. Some women are choosing these menstrual products as alternatives to tampons or absorbent pads, without adequate warnings about the risk of endometriosis.
In letters to each of the Cup manufacturers, the association between endometriosis and the use of Menstrual Cups is supported by a statement from the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA), calling the association "physiologically plausible." Currently, none of the Menstrual Cups mention endometriosis on their packaging.
Associated Pharmacologists & Toxicologists ((APT) www.assocpharmtox.org) & The International Endometriosis Research Center ((ERC) www.endocenter.org) have previously petitioned the FDA regarding the endometriosis risk associated with the use of the Menstrual Cups. The FDA noted the "plausibility" of the association in its response to that petition.
Armand Lione, President of APT, said: "Despite the FDA's public statement more than a year ago on the likely risk of endometriosis from the use of menstrual cups, the FDA has not taken any action to inform Cup users. We hope that calling attention to the manufacturer's liability associated with this failure to warn will get these companies to quickly add information on endometriosis to their products." Heather Guidone, Director of Operations for the ERC said, "we owe it to women and teens to be vigilant in our investigation of all potential contributors to this insidious disease."
The two U.S. manufacturers of Menstrual Cups are Instead Inc.(www.softcup.com [La Jolla, CA]) and The Keeper (www.keeper.com [Cincinnati, OH]). The Diva Cup (www.divacup.com) is manufactured in Ontario, Canada, and the MoonCup (www.mooncup.co.uk) is a British product.
Why is re-using nappies less gross than re-using pads?
I'm just curious because poo contains lots of bacteria and can carry parasites and in my opinion smells worse than blood! Whereas you wouldn't catch any blood-borne diseases from your own blood, it doesn't smell unless it sits damp for a long time.
Period blood smells different than other blood. It's like... this warm fishy smell. I think it would be grand if my periodblood smelled like copper, like my other blood smells like! But sadly...
I can tell you I've never smelled anyone's period blood...so those are some pretty unhygienic girls you must have been around or I've been lucky. One of the benefits of using something that goes inside, instead of a pad, is that you aren't going to have a smell wafting from those parts unless it leaks a lot or you normally have that problem anyway.
Has anyone mentioned using sea sponges? I think about how much money it would save to use reusable period products, but I don't think I can give up convenience. I wonder if more women used these options if the price of tampons and pads would drop. Comfortable ones aren't cheap, after all.
They're not bad ideas but it has made my skin crawl a little! I guess it's just not for me. I don't even like the idea of having a Tampon inside me, let alone a cup that collects blood *shudders*
Although reading everyone talk so candidly about their periods has been rather amusing :) xx
Same with guys actually... Working with youth justice kids... i've come into contact with kids who dont wash for weeks at a time. There were times when I would get back to work and throw up cause that's how bad it was. *nods*
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
It sucks that the environment is getting ****ed because of pads and ****, but personally I don't want to be washing pads to reuse, and the cup things would really freak me out, I stay far away from tampons anyway, I find them unconfortable and only neccessary when I want to surf or swim, so I really wouldn't want to shove a cup up there. *shudders*
Imagine you've just spilled fruit punch. You can either:
A) Get a paper towel and wipe it up. It gets absorbed in the paper, so even if you can't throw that paper towel away immediately, at least the punch isn't still sloshing around, ready to make a disgusting sticky mess at any time.
or B) Save the environment! Collect all the juice back into a cup, where it jiggles around all day getting all warm and fetid until you can find a place to dump it out. Then, after being rid of the contents, you still have to find a place to wash and store this cup, so you can use it next time this happens.
Personally, I'm gonna chose option A.
This fails.
The juice doesn't go anywhere, it 'spills' into the cup. There is no mess. It doesn't jiggle about all day, it stays there till you go to the loo and empty it. You wash it properly when you're home and when you're not on your period you get a little bag to keep it in ^_^
Mooncups are made of silicone so they warm to your body temperature and you can't feel them, at all. They sit lower in the vagina, too. They are so comfy, if you find tampons uncomfortable then don't use that as a reason not to use the mooncup, they are 2 completely different products that work in different ways. The string of tampons really annoys me, I hate it, but there's nothing hanging outside your vagina with the mooncup.
They hold more blood than tampons so are better for heavy periods.
Lots of sex will not loosen the vagina enough to require the larger size, unless your having sex with something not disimilar in size to a baby's head.
My period doesn't smell but, I know a lot of women who find their period smells better after using the mooncup.
Saving money isn't a point we've been concentrating on a lot, so even if you dont' care about the environment I'm sure you care about saving money. A one off purchase of £20 and that lasts you 10 years if you take care of your mooncup, you will be saving so much money.
And on the point of convenience the mooncup is so damn easy once you get the hang of it, there's nothing inconvenient about it.
I LOVE the openness in this thread, by the way, it's refreshing and wonderful :)
i would like to try a mooncup actually. but over here they are expensive and i looked at one once in a shop and it seemed so FAT.
They might be expensiveat first but they're much more economical, you get 10 years use out of it... for me that's £2 per year as mine was about £20...I'd tend to spend more than that in a month on pads and tampons!
They actually fold pretty small.
Have a look at the ladycup from the US coz they're really thin!
