Green is the New Black – Mooncup®

Now if you follow my Instagram account you’ve probably been anticipating this post for a while…… My Mooncup® Insta Stories are quite legendary if you hadn’t heard! So anyway, three months ago I decided to try out a whole new experiment/experience. I was sick of having to buy sanitary products – And I’m certainly not alone here. We’ve all seen this in the news lately right? That whole “charge women for something that occurs naturally as part of their being” is for another post. For now we are just talking about the delightful options we females face to deal with those pesky periods.  

TAMPONS – Don’t like them. I’ve never found them to be comfortable and also, who knows what chemicals are on those bleached little pieces of cotton wool. Did you know that tampons also contain plastic? Not just the applicators, the actual tampon itself. It’s estimated that every single day 2.5 million tampons are flushed down the toilet. And on average you can find 9 plastic tampon applicators per each km of UK beach. GROSS and so not “Green is the New Black.”

SANITARY PADS – Don’t like them. They’re bulky, they’re uncomfortable and what the hell is up with pads being scented nowadays? Did we ask for that? Am I offended by the smell of my period, a perfectly normal part of adolescent/adult female life? NO.  Do I want my crotch to smell like an air freshener? NO. How dare these companies assume that we want or need to mask “the scent” of a completely natural bodily function. And if that isn’t enough to thoroughly piss you off, there’s more. One conventional sanitary pad will take approximately 500 years to break down. YEP – 500 YEARS!!! So think how many pads you may have used already in your lifetime, now multiply that by the amount of menstruating females on the planet. What do we get?…….. A giant fucking mess!! So what’s a girl who wants to keep her body and the environment safe, to do? Let me introduce you to my new friend the Mooncup® – the menstrual cup that’s saving the planet one period at a time.

The Mooncup® became the world’s first reusable silicone menstrual cup in 2002. It’s mission statement is really quite beautiful. To offer women a safer, greener and cheaper alternative and to make periods more positive, healthy and eco friendly. Sounds good already right? I know some of you may be thinking “But what the hell is it?” So here’s the basic breakdown. The Mooncup® is a soft, medical grade silicone cup that sits inside the vagina to catch the menstrual flow. Before you’re totally put off by that sentence let me point out the benefits

• It’s effective – Mooncup® holds 3 x more than your average tampon
• It’s gentle – Mooncup® is latex free, contains no toxins and is hypoallergenic
• It saves you money – No more buying sanitary products month in, month out. You need just one Mooncup® which has totally paid for itself after 6-8 months.
• It can always be in your handbag – No more surprises and having to dash off to the shop. Your Mooncup® has it’s own little pouch so that you can carry it with you at all times.
• It helps reduce the number of sanitary products heading to landfill or our oceans – It’s predicted that each woman, during her reproductive life, will use and discard 11,000 sanitary items. That’s a shit load of waste. With a Mooncup® there is none!

You’re sold aren’t you? Why wouldn’t you be? And now I know what the number one question is likely to be.

Is it easy to use? 

Now Mooncup® have not endorsed this post so I am giving you my absolute honest review. At first, I was quite scared. I looked at this little cup and wondered how the hell I was going to get it inside me. But once I had checked out the instructions and looked at all the different insertion techniques online, it was actually pretty easy. I found a way that worked best for me and hey presto – in it went and quite bizarrely, I really could not feel it at all. Getting it out for the first time – HA!!!! Not so simple. At one point I almost called for back up and swore I’d never use it again. But I persevered because when ever is the “first time” doing anything perfect? And do you know what? Each time I did it, it got easier and easier. Now, 3 months down the line, I don’t even give it a second thought. My best advice is simply to relax. The Mooncup® can’t get lost up there or do any damage. But us girls know what happens when we get tense… all our muscles tighten, and that isn’t helping get anything out, if you know what I mean. So relax, take deep breaths, trust your body and follow the instructions. I promise you, it’s nowhere near as bad as you’re imagining it to be. And hey, hundreds of thousands of women, in over 50 countries are now Mooncup® users. So if they’re all doing it, I’m pretty sure you can.

So what do you think? Would you give it a go? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I for one, will never be going back to the sanitary products that society tells us are the “norm.” Because at the end of the day, it’s my body, my period and I want to do what’s right for me and for the beautiful earth that I love so much.

Beth Anne xoxo