When I first moved to Austria I had a lot of time on my hands, and this led to a lot of googling, which led me to the glorious discovery of the menstrual cup.
I can hear some of you saying “ewwwww” right now and clicking firmly off my blog. That’s ok. Society as a whole generally seems to view periods as disgusting things that should be hidden. And while I don’t think that it’s something that should be thrown in people’s faces – talking about your period and buying sanitary products should be normal, not icky.
So I got down to business and read all about menstrual cups – comments like, it changed my life, and, it’s as easy as changing a tampon, convinced me to give it a go. Not only would I be helping the environment, I also would only have to change the damn thing twice a day, and never worry about leakage! Sounds like heaven.
But I have to be honest – it took me quite a while before I got to the easier than a tampon stage. For some girls, it works right away, every time. For me – it was a learning process. First of all, after I rudely rejected the advice of the very helpful MeLunar customer service, and went out and bought the wrong size (because it was right there in the shop), I struggled through months of leakage before I bit the bullet and bought a few other sizes too. And voila!
And it has changed my life – well, my period’s life anyway. Even though in that first year I spent much more time in the bathroom, experimenting with new folds, squishing, pushing, pulling… well you get the idea – it can be hard to get used to. And that incident in the bath with the lube and spoon and the crying… well let’s just forget about that, ok?
And yes, you have to get down there and get dirty, and yes, occasionally I think, tampons would be much easier. Sometimes it leaks, and I don’t know why, sometimes I wonder how on earth I’m going to get the damn thing out, and sometimes I chuck in a tampon instead, because well, when I get my period in the middle of the night I just can’t deal, ok?
But most of the time, I’m just friggin overjoyed. For a while, I actually looked forward to my period so that I could ‘try it out again’. When I go on holidays, I pack one thing (and a few liners). I never have to think about what size is right or panic because a work meeting went longer than expected. It doesn’t have to be the last thing I do before bed, because 12 hours, gals, that’s how long you can leave it in (individual flow pending). It’s good for the environment and it makes my life easier. I call that a win!
I understand if you’re still feeling squeamish and would never consider the menstrual cup as an option – but if you’ve been toying with the idea – I say go for it. Because if it does work for you, you’re just going to be wishing you’d done it years ago!
an aussie in austria 