Aunt Flo Goes Green

By: Katy Rank Lev

Imagine a world free of awkwardly asking your boss for a spare tampon, shaking your purse upside down in search of a quarter for the bathroom machine that’s likely out of all feminine care products or literally coming up empty-handed when your period strikes unannounced.

If you had suggested to me a few years ago that I would proselytize the gospel of reusable menstrual cups, I would have run from the room in disgust. But then, I sat down to read more about these resource- and money-savers and felt interested enough to take the plunge. Let’s face it. No matter how you manage your menses, you’re still gathering a bunch of blood either in or very near your vagina. When uber-heavy postpartum periods made my monthlies very messy, I figured I had nothing to lose with the cup. I have not looked back since and wish every woman could experience the freedom of this type of period management.

For one thing, tampons are expensive. I was spending a LOT of money every month for something I flushed down the toilet (or, in the case of my old plumbing, had to wrap in tissue and throw in the trashcan. Yuck!). If the average woman gets 13 periods per year, for about 4 days each, and changes her tampon (conservatively) every five hours, that’s about 250 tampons we’re each using every single year. Thinking about the resources involved in their production and packaging made me twitch worse than the cost. And then I got to thinking about bleached cotton and whether I really wanted to insert such a thing into my sensitive, delicate vagina…suddenly, natural or reusable options sounded more appealing.

I had a few friends who used the Keeper and Diva Cup brand cups, though there are many others–I picked Diva Cup because the complimentary lapel pin made me chuckle. So I zipped off to Whole Foods, agonized over what size I needed (my age put me in one size category while my childbirth circumstances put me in another), and spent just one afternoon doing awkward bathroom yoga while I learned to insert and remove the cup. After two or three tries, I was amazed. I couldn’t feel a thing, yet I recognized that I had inserted the cup properly. And that was just the beginning.

These cups only need to be emptied every 12 hours. This means an entire workday (or cross-country flight) free from worry over your monthly flow, even if you use the bathroom throughout the day. Not to mention, you can rest easy overnight, despite a heavy flow. As if that weren’t amazing enough, the cup saves you major ick factor–no dealing with tampon strings (wet or dry…), no leakage or pantyliners, and minimal mess when changing the cup itself. Stick a bottle of water or a diaper wipe in your purse for an emergency mid-day change in a public restroom and you’re all set.

I will warn that your hands will get messier than they would during a tampon change. In the privacy of your home bathroom, this is likely not a big deal since you have ready access to a sink. The capacity and secure fit of the cup allows you to mostly avoid the dreaded stalls of the workplace bathroom, but if you switch your purse stash from extra tampons to water or wipes, this hitch becomes unnoticeable.

To sterilize the cup between cycles, the manufacturers advise boiling for a few minutes. It’s then no trouble at all to store in its tiny pouch. Mine lives on a shelf above the toilet, hiding nondescriptly among the lotions and soaps. Since I opt to pre-insert on suspected flow days (or else just stash it in my bag), I am happy to say I’ve barely thought about my menstruation. If only I could get back all those years of wasted tampons and worry over period particulars!

Katy Rank Lev is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer whose work covers parenting, sustainability, and cupcakes. She writes things down at www.katyranklev.com.