girl stuff

so yesterday I had to nip into Boots for a monthly purchase (yes, look away now if you don't want to read anything about matters menstrual...), and I had been thinking recently about all the tampons flushed into the sea and landing on beaches and the pesticide on the cotton made to make them, and how I ought to really investigate alternatives and should just get on the internet to look at it... (at which point I hadn't even read about all the chemicals involved!)

...and I was surprised to find that Boots are now stocking Mooncups on the shelves! So I could get on with my resolution straight away and I purchased one. I was pleasantly surprised at how cutely it was packaged - very chic little white box with flowers on and so on - you wouldn't know what lurked inside and don't have to feel embarassed at the till handling some scary looking contraption.

As for actually trying it out, well I'm not going to go into too many details... It looked terrifying at first, and was a little bit of a fiddle getting set up but very comfortable once installed. Removal was a whole other issue however, and I started to feel a bit dismayed, until I remembered how hard it was starting on tampons - I remember wondering how I would ever get used to it, so I think I'll have to reserve judgment until I've given it more of a chance.

For a more in-depth review read this - http://pewari.may.be/2003/08/01/the-mooncup-review/ , and this is quite an interesting article, although I was disappointed how quickly the author gave up -http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article4833447.ece . I did however learn that advertising of menstrual products was banned until the '70s. Weird, another one of those little things I've never thought about before...

And if you want more encouragement, these guys seem to mostly love it - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=196357 - on the money saving expert site, which is a reminder that it's not just a good idea for the green credentials, but also for the money saving potential, which is always a winner for me.

Also, should mention there are lots of other alternatives worth checking out - this is a good run-down - http://www.grist.org/advice/products/2008/11/18/index.html