Fifty - Greener Menstruation

Yup. I said it. I did birth control and now I'm going to green up my periods. I have been working at this for a while now, but I'm going to take it a step further. I will go step by step through my journey. Beyond green, think about these products, what they are made of, and where we put them. Don't we want the safest, most chemical-free products?

1. Greener tampons and pads
The first switch happened when I ran out of tampons in college after moving near the Wedge. I didn't want to make the trek to Target for just that one thing so I looked in the Personal Care isle and was amazed. I found Natracare products, read the box, bought some liners and tampons (applicator free) I started to learn more.

2. Party in Pants / GladRags
Still, I was using tampons that needed to be thrown away. Though difficult to go back to pads, I was startled by these figures from Tree Hugger: "73,000,000 women in the US use tampons. The average woman uses 16,800 tampons in a lifetime; 24,360 tampons for women on estrogen-replacement therapy. Assuming a 40-year period of fertility, that is over 30 billiontampons per year which must be handled by special sanitary disposal systems."
Yuck. I started with GladRags. Honestly, too bulky. Party in my Pants, if you can get over the stupid name, is actually really nice. The slogan's better -- Cloth Pads for the Princess on her Period. For only the cost of shipping, you can try out a liner for free. Marie Claire even has an article review of them. You could also make your own or even, if you can't do the pads, try Sea Sponge reuseable tampons. They last a few months, making them better that the disposable kind.

3. Diva Cup / The Keeper
I talked to my doctor and made the switch. I've practiced a bit, but all went smoothly and I am looking forward to my first real test coming up soon. (wow, usually not excited for these... :) )

It simply folds, is inserted like a tampon, and you remove and rinse as needed. You can wear it overnight, for extended periods of time, and don't have to worry about TSS. This is also going to save me a TON of money! One product for $35-40 does it all--and with no TRASH! Again, many have already written a lot about this topic and this product, so check out this brief posting from Tree Hugger for more details.

Still not convinced? Try this. Take a box of tampons. Divide the cost by then number in them. Decide how many you use in a month. A year? See how much it's costing you. Then, add in what it's costing Mother Nature. I think it's time to switch to something greener.

Peace!