Very Loose Women: Revamped: October 2013

There’s a lot to like about the Mooncup. I, for one, like the name’s hippy-ish connotations of communing with nature like a Wiccan goddess. I’m not sure it’s quite what the manufacturers had in mind, but I like to imagine myself starring in an advert for the product, running along a ley-line towards Stonehenge in a pastiche of the you-can-still-be-active-and-no-one-will-know theme of traditional tampon advertising.

I first heard about Mooncups in 2007, during VLW’s first menstruation special. Various friends had given rave reviews of the ‘this will change your life’ variety and we all decided there and then, to give it a go. Fast forwarding to 2013, on our second show on periods, we all had to admit that even after six years we still hadn’t left the tampons or sanitary towels behind. Resolute that this had to change, in August of this year, my Mooncup finally landed.

The Mooncup is marketed as ‘convenient, safe and eco friendly’ and the stats certainly back up the company’s green agenda. The average woman can use up to 22 tampons or pads during a period- something in the region of 11,000 throughout her lifetime. In the UK alone, 4.3 billion of these disposable products end up in landfills or in the sea. Furthermore, an average of 30 sanitary products are found washed up on each kilometre of British beach. Periods and menstrual blood aren’t, and shouldn’t be, disgusting to anyone. But the by-products of menstruation pose a real environmental threat and their disposal simply isn’t sustainable.

The benefits of the Mooncup aren’t just for the eco system; there are persuasive health reasons for ditching the tampons and sanitary towels. The Mooncup’s USP is that it collects rather than absorbs menstrual flow. Of all the fluid absorbed by a tampon, 35% is natural vaginal moisture. As the silicone Mooncup only collects blood, the irritation and dryness associated with bleached and perfumed tampons and pads are avoided. It is also designed to accommodate blood clots and can hold up to three times as much blood as a tampon- music to the ears of anyone suffering from heavy periods. Handy lines on its sides allow you to accurately measure blood loss in case you need to accurately report the heaviness of your periods to a doctor or gynaecologist- or if would just feel empowered by actually knowing how much you actually bleed during your cycle. Apart from intermittent sterilisation, you simply need to rinse it out in a sink or, like some of Emma’s friends, pour the collected blood into your compost.

I ordered my Mooncup online and it arrived in just a few days. It was discreetly and minimally packaged, fit through my letterbox, and only cost £19.99. That equates to about the same as three months’ worth of sanitary items, but my Mooncup will now last for years. But what is it actually like?

I won’t pretend that I wasn’t nervous about trying the Mooncup. It took me a long time to get used to tampons, and even then I still found them difficult to insert, difficult to remove, and just generally a pain. If I struggled with ‘easy to use’ applicators, how would I fare with something resembling a miniature fake boob or piece of medical equipment? There’s no denying it: for anyone brought up with disposable products, the Mooncup will look intimidating. It’s not bleached an artificial pristine white, and the very fact its circumference is that of a vagina is enough to put off particularly squeamish women.

After reading the leaflet provided I felt much less apprehensive. For one thing, as the Mooncup is worn much lower than a tampon and held in place by pelvic floor muscles, there’s no chance of it getting lost and having an embarrassing trip to the GP. If it does move a little higher than it’s meant to, you can use your muscles to gently push it down to the right place before removing. If this takes a while, as there’s no threat of TSS, you can lie back and collect your nerves without having a full- on panic if the GP surgery is closed. It was a bit odd for my flatmate to see me sterilising my Mooncup over the hob, but once that was out the way I could focus on the task in hand and overcome a last minute bout of nerves.

With the help of a relaxing scented candle and some lubricant, I was surprised at how easy it was to use. The Mooncup is inserted when folded, and in this position its size is really similar to a tampon. And like a tampon, if properly positioned, you can’t feel it at all. Once inside the body, it sort of springs open and its rim seals around the vaginal walls. It’s easy to remove too. It glides out quite slowly and very cleanly into your hand as you release the suction with no spillage.

I’m aware that words like ‘suction’ are rather unfortunate given the context, but I’d argue that one of the Mooncup’s great merits is the intimacy it gives you with your body. You can monitor your menstrual flow and it’s consistency, all whilst knowing that you are using a device designed with the shape of your body in mind. One side effect reported by many Mooncup users is a reduction in menstrual cramps, possibly due to its lower position than tampons. Others describe how periods they had thought to be unnaturally heavy were actually perfectly manageable with a Mooncup instead of a tampon. I did feel an entirely unexpected wave of self- confidence once I’d tried it a few times. It just felt like rather than working against my body I was finally managing my period without the usual disasters of ruined bed sheets, accidental tampon leakage whilst at work, and the chilling feeling of realising there’s no sanitary bin.

So am I convert? Well, sort of. As much as I love my Mooncup, my workplace only has one toilet with a sink inside the cubicle, and I don’t think my colleagues are ready to see my menstrual blood swirling down the communal plug- hole just yet. I can’t imagine cleaning it in a public toilet, so that discounts usage more or less anywhere other than my house. I’d like to be trailblazer for the Mooncup, but I need a bit of help. We need to make sure girls learn about periods properly in schools, and how their sanitary choices impact on their health and the environment. We need to talk about our periods more, and be unafraid to ask our employers to make more private sinks in female toilets, and encourage the NHS and other health bodies to promote eco-friendly, natural alternatives to disposable sanitary methods. All of this starts with all of you too, and I hope that you're inspired to give the Mooncup a go at least some of the time.