menses
If 50% (thereabouts) of the population of the world is affected by this for what is usually decades on end, we can all talk about it, right?
Are the squeamish gone yet?
I started at age 9 and I'm still going strong. Fertile, we are, the women in my family. I use the standard complement of tampons (unscented), pads and mini-pads or "panty-liners" as they young kids call them.
Many, many years ago (I'm thinking back in my Young Miss reading days), I heard about this cup thing you could insert and um, rinse out now and then. It brought an end to the need to purchase yer monthlies, which appealed to me. -hey, when I started? I had to use the thing that you could attached to your pants front and back with safety pins and city-girls wore a belt with...WHAT THE FUCK? I liked the idea of not having that surfboard (1" thick and 10" plus length-wise) sliding around -pins worked only minutely better than the belts, from what I've heard with subsequent "accidents." The article said they had to be mail-ordered. I couldn't afford it at the time and forgot about it.
I stumbled upon The Keeper -damn, just restocked the monthlies and it's apparently the same thing or at least basically the same. They're available in latex and silicone and pre-birth or post-birth sizes. It's interesting. I don't know if I want to use it and my fear would be it leaks. -thereby rendering it useless It offers a 3 month return policy (ew) but I saw one review where some woman found hers uncomfortable and has waited 5 months so far with no refund.
There are some other brands, too, but they seem to all come from something originally designed in the early 1900's.
Hasn't caught on much, eh? Consider, you can buy reusable, washable "glad rags" but the women in my family just called them "rags" -hence "on the rag" and literally used old fabric that was soaked in a bucket and washed for reuse. If you're going to be washing your own, it sounds to me like one of these "cups" -if they really don't leak could be a good buy.
My Groups
-
Writers Hub Updated: 11 hours ago
-
Memes Anonymous Updated: 18 hours ago
-
Moleskine Updated: 2 days ago
Comments
I think you mean the yuck-factor. In my case, even with tampons and what comes out visibly on pads and literally falls into the toilet is the same stuff. I know that's a visual men wouldn't want to have but I know women know what I'm talking about ;)
One concern on my side and that's the um, handle thing? It's supposed to be outside your body and that seems, how could I say this without saying it the way I normally would? Well, like a stick somewhere that normally you wouldn't want to spend all day feeling.
The site says a typical woman loses 2-4 ounces total during menses and it should hold 1 ounce. Honestly, I'd consider dumping it in the shower and doing my rinse-y-poo there!
It takes all kinds and thank GOODNESS for the details-people. We look before we leapers rely on you!
I have two friends with very heavy periods who use these and say they are awesome and don't leak. I can't remember what one they have, but both of them just boil it up on the stove before they start using it every month to give it a bit of an extra clean.
Most of the time I don't have enough of a period to think this is worth it to me. A bad period for me is when I get to the third tampon.
Don't be jealous. It's probably going to give me uterine cancer or some such eventually. lol.
I keep thinking about giving one a try. I'm chicken.
Really, since they are returnable (I'd sterilize it first, if it came to that), I don't have anything to lose by giving them a shot. Maybe in a month or two, when my stockpile of other stuff runs a little lower...
Yeah, "Instead" were disposable I *think.* Didn't you have to wear ONE the whole period or something because when you took it out, it was "out?" If it's ready to come out, it should come out, right? That's one of my worries even if it's completely unfounded. :)
I did start taking the pill as a teen originally to combat the severe symptoms I was dealing with at the time. A couple of years ago my doctor and I decided I could skip three months of periods at a time. I don't want to be on the pill forever, but at this point in my life it's a freeing experience to not have the hassle of my period but three or four times a year.
My maternal family had many women die from bleeding -- including one of my grandmother's sisters. The "cure" was staying knocked up; I'm not kidding. Hence: my great-grandmother had 19 live births. That's what they had to do. My grandmother had a complete hysterectomy at age 27 and that "cured" her.
I was put on pills at age 17 and stayed on them until last year. At that time, I was using the once every 4 months pills and still getting a period once every 2-3 weeks. This, is better than facing multiple pregnancies (not a psychological option due to my childhood) or death.
I hated having to be on all that "hormone" stuff, especially because it didn't work the way it was supposed to do. Reading one of the packette inserts will scare the Bejeebies out of a girl.
Bringing me to...Why stop? Well, somewhere between my advanced years (I'm 36) and switching from industrial-raised (therefore who-know-what hormone-induced) skim milk to using full-fat soy milk (approx. 3 C/ day), I had a major physical change. After 3 weeks, I was surprised at the "no bleed-throughs" that I took myself off the pill and continued on a REGULAR cycle. Never in my life have I experienced that. I'm told it's either the phyto-estrogens in the soy milk -or- my current natural hormone level (getting ready to begin menopause).
Long comment, eh? I wanted to get that in there with the discussion about hormones :)
Hey gals -
Yes I wouldn't ever knock the pill if it was to correct a medical problem - I totally understand that. It just makes my skin crawl when I hear the pill being advertised to teenagers as a way to avoid the "inconvenience" of menstruating. Just like the ads touting the new cervical cancer vaccine.
The vaccine may be great. But advertising it?? Shouldn't that be between the girl and her pediatrician? It's just creepy what these drug companies are trying to sell!
When I took the pill I got vertigo, loud ringing in my ears and a headache that lasted two months. The pharmacist and ***former*** ObGyn told me my symptoms couldn't possibly be from the pill and switched me to a different kind. Months more of the same symptoms, until guess what, I stopped taking them and two days later my symptoms were gone.
That's why I'm suspicious of this drug. But hey, I'm not a doctor, I just play one on TV. ;)
These pharmcos are incredible -- and making money hand-over-fist. I will regurgitate if anyone whines, "but that money goes into R&D."
MT, OTC? That's just crazy. By the way when I was still on Restoril do you know I paid $36 per pill? Thank goodness I discovered magnesium!!
Valerae, you probably already know this trick, but I've been taking local honey for years now and as long as I'm consistent, not so much as a sneeze all year. I have to start in February but if you start now within a few months things do get better.
For acute attacks, stinging nettle (freeze dried capsules) work wonders for me.
Advertising to the kids is even worse. Young girls shouldn't be manipulating their stuff anyway, holy crow, they're not even done growing yet!! I'm an adult woman who's been married for nearly 8 years and I have no plans for kids. My periods have always been rough so it was a decision that my doc and I made to cut back. No corporations were consulted in my decision.
My sister can't take the pill either, even I had a problem until I found the right one. It's crazy what some of those hormones will do to you. I was a freaking monster on one kind of pill. My doc at the time finally switched me to something else that was even worse. I was fed up with her so I changed docs and my new one took me off of it right away - apparently my replacement pill was even stronger than the one I was having trouble with! I've been on low-dose estrogen ever since. It's not a permanent solution, but it does the trick for now.
What a shame. Women have come a long way in the last couple of generations but we still have a ways to go. I can't imagine pregnancy being a good solution to anything. Ugh, poor great-gramma.
I'm glad you found something that works for you. If my symptoms return, I'll have to resort to taking the pill again -- it scares me, though. Esp. w/ menopausal women and their dealios with hrts.
Mad-T, sorry for the comment overload, just wanted responses to specific comments!! :-D