The post where you all go "Eurgh!"

If you are related to me, or don't want to hear about the female reproductive cycle then please look at this picture and then go and read this post about Why Daddys Are Always (Never) Right. Forget you were even at this post.

How do you like them apples?

A while back now I was trying to work out how I could cut down the cost of our monthly bills. I have a few posts on the blog about being frugal but the one area that I felt I could cut down on the most was personal items.

I suffer from Menorrhagia (really heavy periods) and always have done and was looking on the Internet for some ideas because the monthly bill for sanitary products was starting to make me wonder if being pregnant all the time or having a hysterectomy would be the only solutions.

Somewhere I read about Mooncups.

Yeah a Mooncup.

The thought didn't actually make me go "Eurgh!" as it does to some people, but it did remind me of a story I had heard many years ago about a woman who used her menses to fertilise her roses (that did make me go Eurgh) but I figured that a £20 one off payment would actually save me if I used it for more than three periods (that was how much I would spend on sanitary products for two months) so I went to my local boots and brought one.

They sell them in two sizes depending on your age and if you have ever had a vaginal birth. I got size A not the small size B and went home excited with my package, even if slightly worried what Daddy was going to say.

You need to sterilise the cup first and so I set about doing that. I was wondering what the heck anyone would think if they walked into my kitchen and saw me boiling a plastic funnel like object in a new saucepan but I carried on. I played with it after it had cooled down trying to fold it as I would need to to insert it and found it to be a lot more flexible than I had thought it would be.

Finally came the time for me to use it for the first time.

I followed the instructions in the very detailed leaflet and put it in. I knew that I hadn't put it in right so I removed it and tried again. Second time lucky it got in the right spot. It made me giggle because in order to put it in you kind of fold it in on itself and then when it is inside you it pops open and I didn't think I would feel the pop as clearly as I did!

I managed to wear it for about twenty minutes before the stem was really annoying me and so I had to remove it to cut the stem down a bit (which it says you can do in the leaflet) and at the same time I was able to see how much of the menses it had collected. I emptied it into the toilet and gave it a quick rinse under the tap before inserting it again.

This time it went into place straight away.

It took a few days for me to get use to using the cup, but the one thing that it didn't do which I would normally have a problem with is leak. In the past I would have to wear a tampon and a towel in order to feel protected but the Mooncup was handling the heaviest of periods.

It was when we went to Sweden on Stage on July 4th, that I realised what a great piece of equipment this was. It was a hot day, I was on the first day of my period and there were only going to be portaloos to use. For the entire time that we were there I emptied my cup once, just because I thought I should. It was quick it was private and best of all I didn't have to carry around tampons or towels or spend hours in the queue for the toilets!

This was the only picture of me that I could find from that day that didn't involve me dancing with abandon.

I would recommend a mooncup to anyone female. I think that it is great for saving money, time and the environment. Sure it sounds gross and the sucky noise that you sometimes here when removing it isn't my favourite sound but it helps me see just what I am losing each month and you know that horrid dry feeling you sometimes get when taking out a tampon? I've not had that since using a mooncup!