In praise of the Moon Cup

| by Lou | 2.52pm UK time |

Join the revolution: the Moon Cup is awesome. Honestly. From first try you'll wonder how you ever thought it was okay to wad yourself with cotton.




I bought one 6 weeks ago on a whim, mostly motivated by environmental reasons and a dodgy tampon experience. (Dodgy in this case being the mildly disturbing incidence of the cotton not all staying in one piece. One tiny little loose tuft is quite wrong when it comes to internal useage.)

First impressions: it's smaller than I expected, and seeing it in person made it seem so much more logical than thinking about it in the abstract. After reading the instructions about a thousand times I waited for the time to come to try it feeling still rather skeptical.

First time round I found it quite difficult to get out (as in ten minutes of OH MY GOD IT'S NEVER COMING OUT - but hey, now I'm much better aquainted with my vagina!), but after a couple of goes (and a lot of googling) I've now found a technique that's quick and easy. It is extremely comfortable, in that I didn't feel it at all. And while obviously for the first two goes I didn't trust it to not leak, having now used it a few times I feel 99.9% secure.

I felt so secure that I took it on a beach holiday. This is the ultimate test. And five days in a bikini/ retro one-piece using solely the moon cup has me totally and utterly convinced that it is the best option.

(It's an especially great option if you're irrationally afraid of sharks like I am. As it actually creates a barrier there is much less chance of releasing that miniscule amount of blood that will send every shark within a thousand mile radius heading your way.)




Here are my reasons why you should give it a go:

• Environmentally there is no question that a single reusable cup is a gazillion times better than constant disposal of wads of cotton.
  
  
• Economically it is way cheaper, with the bonus that you'll no longer be supporting corporations to make dodgy products and market them patronisingly ("Have a happy period!" FUCK OFF!).



• In terms of convenience, once the entry-and-exit technique is mastered it is an easy solution that cuts out that fricking irritating scenario of realising you don't have any tampons with you (and doesn't involve desperately looking around wondering where the fuck you're going to dispose of the used product because your old workplace only has open bins in the unisex toilets basically forcing you into the flush option which is soooooo bad for the poor waterways and sewage workers, but that's another story). However the only catch is that if you work somewhere that does not have a sink in the cubicle you'll need a bottle of water to give it a rinse. But having said that, I found that I could easily go 8 hours without having to empty it. And drinking lots of water is good for you anyway.



• It just feels so much healthier. Honestly - I was sticking wads of cotton inside myself? Seriously?? And especially when you get to that end phase where it's sort of tailing off but not completely so you sort of still need to use a tampon but at the same time it feels wrong because there isn't quite enough there... Yeah, none of that.



• It is thought that it reduces cramping, and based on my two months of useage I would agree. The theory is that it is allowing the body to shed the uterine lining in its natural way because it is falling down into the cup rather than immediately hitting a cotton barrier. I can't state it as a fact due to not having been using it longer, but usually for me at least one out of two times would involve horrific unbearable cramping and I have had none of that.



• Lastly, it's actually kind of interesting and makes the whole experience of menstruation feel like a natural thing rather than some female defect that needs to be mopped up with branded cotton wads.
  

Colour me converted.


EDIT TO ADD: I forgot to mention that it requires some heavy duty thigh strength to do an empty out in aeroplane toilets. But it is possible.