Mooncups and Minimalist Periods

I only very recently heard about Mooncups, and if you have no idea what they are, then it’s time you were educated! Mooncups are essentially little silicone cups that you stick in your vagina to collect your blood when you are on your period.

Okay, so now you’ve made that wrinkly “ew” face, stay with me here… I’m going to be honest about the pros and cons of using one, and why I decided to buy one in the first place.

After being told about them by a friend who’d encountered the brand at a vegan market, I was intrigued, but not particularly bothered enough to actually buy one. It was only when *another* friend told me that they were using the similar Lilycup that I decided to go for it because frankly, pads and tampons are just not great. You are always prone to little accidents with them, like when you leak onto your pants or onto someone’s sofa (you poor thing) and it’s always a bit of a gamble as to knowing when to check and swap for a new one.

With the Mooncup, I’ve kept it in for about 11 hours whilst on my heaviest day and it was fine. No spills, no leaks, and no discomfort. I mean, when you first start to use it, it’s quite a strange sensation… But it feels like using a tampon, except that it sits slightly lower down in your vagina and you can *definitely* feel it when you sneeze haaa.



So no spills, no discomfort, no embarrassment. But the best thing about the Mooncup is that you aren’t throwing away a zillion pads or tampons every period – there’s no waste! And that, my friends, is really good for the environment. And also your bank account because you only have to buy one cup and you are sorted – no monthly runs to the shop to buy pads and praying you get a female cashier (we’ve all done it).

Okay, so those are the pros, now I’m going to be totally upfront about the cons. Taking out the cup is like having a tug of war with your own vagina. I mean, you start to learn a knack for it after a while, but I genuinely had no idea how hench my vagina was until I had to take a Mooncup out of it.

The other downside is that when you take it out, you definitely have to be by a sink, and that makes taking it out when you are at a public toilet more tricky. It’s doable… But not easy. The way I get around this is simply timing it well so that I only have to take it out at home so it’s workable.

And then I guess it goes without saying that you also have to be comfortable with seeing blood, because you do have the pour it out at the end of the day. Personally, I found it really interesting to see exactly how much blood is produced by a period, but I understand not everyone is as curious and/or gory as I am…

I mean, at the end of the day, the most important thing is that we’re all comfortable as possible while on our period, because we get enough pain and issues from being on it as it is. So if the Mooncup sounds intriguing to you, I recommend to just go for it and give it a go! I got mine from Amazon here (note that size A is for women who have had babies and/or are over 35 while size B is for us babyless young ‘uns).

tags:less waste,mooncup,periods,sustainability