What has your experience with menstrual products been?
- I could never wear a tampon because I was too small. They just really irritated me a lot. And I hated those wing things that were plastic. So I just always wore a regular pad. I remember in the summer time when we would go diving and there would be sharks around and we had to be careful that we wouldn’t get our periods cause we didn’t want sharks to get us.
Have you ever used alternative menstrual products?
-What are those?
Like the diva cup or cloth pads.
-like women on the rag really is women on the rag? No that is to archaic for me. If I used that I wouldn’t get a Brazilian bikini wax and I wouldn’t shave my under arms. I would just braid my underarms and let the monkey be the monkey.
N, 21
What kind of products do you use?
-I don’t use pads anymore because I finally got comfortable with tampons. Sleep in them use them all the time whatever. I used to use the cardboard ones but now I use the plastic ones because they are more comfortable.
Have you ever considered or learned about alternative menstrual products?
-no
J, 43
What has your experience with menstrual products been?
-I have to take Tylenol and anti-depressants because of my period. I get really moody and cranky and depressed.
What about products? Like alternative menstrual products?
-No, I use the PMS symptom pills and Tylenol and Advil.
No, like tampons or pads, things like that..
-I use pads and tampons.
Have you ever considered using alternative menstrual products?
-Well I heard the cup doesn’t work. actually I think I tried the cup like 15 years ago. Maybe its changed. I’m not really aware of it but I would like to learn more about it. I would love to hear about it. I have a really heavy flow and sometimes I really hate having the tampon in me. I know nothing about it so I would really like to know more about it.
M, 13
How do you feel about menstrual products? Have you eve heard of alternative menstrual products?
- -No.
How do you feel about getting your period?
-Really bad. It’s a horrible wretched thing.
V, 44
What is your experience with menstrual product? Have you ever considered using alternative menstrual products?
- -I believe in gravity. I have big diapers. I don’t believe in corking the stuff. It has to come out. I wear the biggest diapers I have ever seen. They are very useful if you have a spill or an emergency, they are very absorbent. I like pads they work very well.
Have you ever considered using a cloth pad?
-God no, that’s disgusting!
D, 47
What has your experience been with menstrual products? Would you ever consider using alternative menstrual products or have you ever used them, like the cloth pad, cup or sponge?
- I remember Granny always telling me about how she used a rag and I think one of my sisters had to use one when she stayed at Granny’s once and I thought that was the grossest thing. I would never use them. I need like thick, I use two and then the tampon. I did once consider using the one that is like a cup but I don’t remember why I didn’t. If it just sounded too weird or if I tried it and I don’t know. I remember hearing about it. But now I just bleed too much and I don’t have the energy to try it.
It's interesting how E, who is a risk taker, be so against trying alternative menstrual products. She doesnt get her period anymore but the imagery she brings up about the cloth pad is very primitive.
And D, who is very conservative and reserved, was so open to sharing and was, at one point, thinking about using the cup. she also said that one of her friends says that getting her period is “your monthly reminder that you are capable of baring children.” This rings true for N, she talked about how she was so excited about getting her period because it was a symbol that she was now a woman and that she could get pregnant.
all of these woman are family members and it makes me sad that only one of them is open to using alternative menstrual products. i find them fascinating and i tell everyone who will listen about them.
VyNL
p.s. i get my period this week that means i am starting the sponge!
4 comments:
This is a pretty cool experiment. I would try the cup, but I'm broke and it has a highish initial cost for something I may well not like.
I use tampons and I'm fairly sure I'm going to die of toxic shock syndrome. I have a light period and they get left in for quite a while. I don't keep track of time well. I wouldn't try using cloth pads. I every piece of clothing I own is dirty. They would NEVER get cleaned and it would be very gross. The sponge seems like a tampon only messy. Not appealing. I like tampax pearl tampons. They rarely leak and I don't have to use tat many.
Periods suck though. Day 2 of mine I'm in pain and useless. Being a girl has it's downsides. Boobs are cool though.
Yeah, I agree that if you don't clean cloth pads properly it could be bad news, but... I've been contemlating it myself. Maybe once I move out- that way won't have to worry about explaining it and the weird looks from a family concerned by their hippie-daughter :P (Don't worry though, I won't be braiding my pit hair! haha -- it's too time consuming ;)
Yeah, the sponge (although I don't really know about it- I'll have to read some of the more recent posts) does not appeal to me at all either... I think i posted something before about how little holes freak me out lol
I'm pretty much a standard pad-user and probably will be for a long while- until I work up the nerve to *yikes!* try the cup?
Lol I love being a woman- you get to freak out all the guys by the slightest MENTION of that "time of the month" MWAH HAHAHahahahahaaaa :P
Colleen told me about your project and I figured I would not be a good feminist if I did not contribute. Beware: I am very blunt and detailed.
My experience with menstrual products has been full of anxiety and hatred. I have used pads since I started January 1, 1996 (13 years old). One could not start a year off any better, right? I have always been aware of the smell, which has been difficult to bear considering that I am very paranoid about smelling, sweating, or having something on me. I also remember getting up in front of class to write on the board and worrying that everyone could see my giant pad outline in my pants. You know, all of those paranoid things.
My period has always been difficult. Those who do not know me personally, think I’m lying when I say that I want to murder people when it’s party time. I become an even more hateful person. I want to run over pedestrians, strangle skinny people who I just know never have problems with bloating, and I want to shoot all men point blank. I normally take all of this hatred out on my lovely boyfriend and anyone within a 5 mile radius. I also suffer from horrible cramps, headaches and backaches. I discovered Midol Menstrual Complete and I recommend that to every woman.
I’ve never used alternative methods unless you count a thick layer of toilet paper to hold me over until I was able to get to a stash of pads. I am really afraid of using anything alternative because my period lasts about five days and it is heavy with lots of blood and clots until day five when my vagina “washes” the remaining brown color out. I’m so worried about being clean that I always end my period with a hot baking soda bath.
I’ve never tried tampons because my Mother never wanted me to. Since I was 13 and still a virgin, she said she did not want anything up inside of me. I did not begin having sex until December 2006, so I’ve never thought of it as an option. Even though I am sexually active now, I do not feel comfortable with the idea of something foreign holding blood inside of me after my body has decided to dispel it.
I want to also add that I dislike how menstruation is used as another excuse to think of the vagina as a disgusting thing. Through all the pain and suffering, I become most excited and horny during my period. My boyfriend refuses to have sex despite the fact that we use condoms. When I’m on my period, he refers to my vagina as being blood soaked and dirty. He doesn’t even want to push the cart if I am buying pads. How ridiculous and immature is that? Commercials are even directed at curbing smells and they imply that vaginas are stinky, gross things. My boyfriend’s penis has had stank on it before! I know he is not the only one! Where’s the MDS as opposed to FDS? Also, ladies, do not use FDS or douches. Douches can push impurities further inside your canal and cause infections and FDS just plain stinks.
I hope I’ve been able to contribute in a positive way. Thank you for doing this. It is important to the health of women to understand their bodies. We are no longer in the 1950s. We should know all the details of menstruation and we should be able to say words like vagina, labia, clitoris, etc. rather than “down there”. It’s not a mysterious dick holder, it is a V-A-G-I-N-A.
HEY Kathrine!
Thanks for your post! it was really awesome! it's nice to hear about someone else's experience!
VyNL
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