Gentlemen, you may want to turn the other way.
Ladies...listen up!
It’s that time of the month again, and we are going to talk
about periods…and some things you may have never thought of!
Over the last few years my own cycles had grown more and
more onerous. Worsening PMS, killer migraines, and mind blowing cramps. Cramps
that felt like someone was wringing my uterus out like a sponge, with clots to
match. One thing that I did notice unfailingly made my cramps worse was using
tampons. Now, I felt there was no other alternative, because frankly, I feel
that wearing a pad is kind of gross. But, oh the agony!
So I experimented a bit – and time after time, the tampons
made it worse. Certain brands seemed to be worse than others (for example the
off brand Walmart variety).
Then I came across a post of Facebook (where else?)
regarding what the cotton in our tampons might contain nowadays.
Among the most common pesticides used on cotton
are aldicarb, parathion, and methamidopho, which the World Health Organization
cites as the most acutely hazardous to human health. According to the Organic
Trade Association, "Aldicarb, cotton's second best selling insecticide and
most acutely poisonous to humans, can kill a man with just one drop absorbed
through the skin, yet it is still used in 25 countries and the US, where 16
states have reported it in their groundwater."
A woman will use as many as 17,000 tampons in
her lifetime. Many are made out of a cotton and rayon blend, which must be
bleached to get that clean white sterile look. While the EPA banned a more
harmful bleaching process back in 1998, current elemental "chlorine-free"
bleaching processes using chlorine dioxide still produce, albeit less, dioxins.
Dioxins include a range of chemicals including
polychlorinated dibenzo dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzo furans (PCDFs)
and the now banned, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
Dioxin and other similar pollutants act like estrogen in the
female body…could it be that this is what I was experiencing – heavier more
painful periods as a result of an estrogen dominance like picture?
Then there is the controversy over Bt Cotton (Monsanto is
even finding it’s way up our vaginas!)
Bt cotton requires more pesticide sprayings than indigenous
cotton—MANY times more. Bt cotton has created new resistant pests,8 and
to control these, farmers must use 13 times more pesticides9 than
they were using prior to its introduction
Then there is just the plain ol’ environmental thing:
If every woman of menstruating age replaced
one 16-count package of regular absorbency conventional cotton tampons with our
organic cotton tampons, we could prevent 17,000 lbs of pesticides from
polluting our rivers, lakes and streams.
• If every woman of menstruating age replaced
one 16-count package of super absorbency conventional cotton tampons with our
organic cotton tampons, we could prevent 21,000 lbs of pesticides from
polluting our rivers, lakes and streams.
So, with all that info in hand I went to Whole Foods to
purchase a Diva Cup. After having a heart attack over the $37 price tag, I
pulled up my big girl panties and bought one.
After a few hours of awkwardness, I couldn’t feel a thing.
No leaks. No panicking that I forgot to buy tampons or put one in my purse. And
NO CRAMPS!
I tried to discuss my miraculous discovery with my
daughters…to summarize, the response was essentially: “Ewwwww!!! Mom you are so
weird and gross!”
Well that might be, but…no more pesticides and GMO fibers in
my pussness (borrowed term from my mother) and…
NO CRAMPS!
Gotta love it!
