Secret Woman's Product: For Women's Eyes Only

July 2007

This page is for women's eyes only as it will talk about periods and an alternative to pads and tampons.  This product is useful to all women.

If you're a guy reading this, then you may want to read something in the Green Room!  There are some exciting articles there ;o)

Being female, the thing that troubles me about being in remote places is "that time of month".  Do I have enough pads/tampons to cope with my period?  If I leak then I've got a bloodied underwear and potentially no change.  No way am I going to cathode myself either!

I asked one woman Arctic explorer what she did for her time of the month.  She said she used pads and then stuffed them into the ice.  My thoughts were, there must be something better than that.  In my head are the words "leave no trace".

Along comes Sandra, the website's French translator who is into the environment and women's health.  Sandra says to me "have you tried a menstrual cup?  An ecological way to substitute tampons and other toxic and expensive alternatives to the so called feminine products.  An alternative (natural rubber or anti-allergen latex) that you can reuse again and again."

So I got myself one from Mooncup that uses soft silicon rubber and it looked scary.

However, using it DEFINITELY feels better than tampons.  I left mine in all night without concerns of TSS (Toxic Shock Syndrome) or leakage.  Wanted to test the claims!  I got up 8 hours later, no leakage and no headache.  I have been recently suffering from headaches whilst using the heavy duty tampons during the night but this may be coincidental.  However I've also been rather slack at ensuring I get up to remove it after 4-6 hours.

I definitely will be trialling this product in March 2008 during some Arctic training in Canada.  At the moment I am just getting used to removing it.  However, it is currently a total bonus whilst I have been playing sports.