Menstruation Activation Across the Nation

A few days later, my period arrives!!! YAY!!! PARTY!!!! I got a red balloon at Trader Joe's for my nonexistent child that I told the manager was too shy to come to the counter. JK. LOL.

Unlike Judith, I did not believe organic tampons were necessary. While I believe if faced with the choice between regular tampons and organic tampons, the latter is necessary. However, I do not believe tampons are necessary. I believe that spending money on a product destined to be used once and then thrown away, should be reexamined for an alternative use--except for toilet paper.

A few years ago, I was hugely disappointed with supermarket tampons and pads. I began to look for alternatives; I began using organic pads and tampons which felt a lot better, but were much more expensive and I was still spending money that I was literally throwing a way every month. This really bothered me. I didn't find tampon very comfortable, effective; they were instead costly and contributed to environmental waste. Here's the trouble with non-organic tampons.

So I found alternative menstrual care products like The Keeper and The Diva Cup as well as cloth pads. Menstrual cups cost about $35 so they pay for themselves in a few months and you can use them for up to 10 years. I used my Keeper for 1.5 years, but decided to switch the the Diva Cup because it is made of medical grade silicon which can be sterilized. The Keeper is made out of latex and it cannot be sterilized. I was having recurrent yeast infections that may have been partially caused by me not properly cleaning the Keeper; I decided to get rid of the x factor by switching. I haven't had any problems since switching, but I am also not as stressed as I was when I was having those problems.

The cloth pads last a few years as well, but I am not sure how long, since I had to recently purchase new ones as the ones I purchased a few years ago went MIA. (I don't blame the Marxist.)

There are also other alternatives such as sea sponges, making your own cloth pads, using nothing or staying on birth control (no placebo). I do not want to get into a rant about menstruation activation, but I want my ladies to do some thinking. How much do you spend on sanitary napkins every month, every year since you began and
when you will stop?

Let's calculate averages:
The average American woman starts her period at 12 and ends at 50; that accounts for 38 years of menstruation or 456 periods; not accounting for irregularities or children.

How much do you spend each month on tampons or pads? Using prices
from drugstore.com, I average the popular brands of tampons and pads to be about $6 and the price is closer to $10 for the organic. Let's say you go through one box a month. That means over the course of a lifetime you will spend $2736 on tampons or pads, not accounting for inflation, or a cessation of your period; for organic it's $4560.

Or, say you use a menstrual cup for the average of lifespan of 10 years;
you buy 3 over your menstruating lifetime=about $100.

These are wildly calculated averages, I really recommend you calculate how much you have spent so far on tampons or pads.

This site is my personal fave: Lunapads

Menstruation Activation sites:
Bloodsisters

SEAC (Student Environmental Action Coalition) used to have a rad Tampaction page, but it's been taken down :(

But you can enjoy this article here.