MeLuna

Half my life ago (am I that old already?) my mother told me that tampons could kill me, so I better stick with pads. I've never made it a habit to listen to Mom, hence my future commitment to Tampax Pearl. That commitment was recently challenged by the sighting of one too many pink applicators hanging out on the shores of Lake Erie. In an effort to go green and save some money along the way, I've decided to test out a reusable menstrual cup.

Zilpah and I scoured cup reviews for quite awhile - all the ones with sticks on the end looked uncomfortable and difficult to grip. Thankfully MeLuna, a German company, offers a soft cup with a ring at the end! It is available in a variety of colors and only cost 13 Euros! Compare that to what you pay for a year's worth of tampons!

http://www.meluna.eu/index.php/meluna-soft-ring.html

The MeLuna soft cup arrived today! I got good vibes as soon as I opened the package, for not only did it contain the cup and a cute bag for storage, I received a free pen and some candy too!



Being just 2 days from my period, I decided to give the MeLuna cup a test try. At first glance it looks pretty big, but by folding it up it went in without a problem. I couldn't even feel it!

So far the MeLuna cup appears to be an awesome product! The real challenge arrives on Wednesday though, when my period starts and I have to figure out how to remove it without making a mess. Remind me not to wear khakis to work that day!

Enter the tent.

Imagine a long, romantic walk on the shores of Lake Erie in late October. The water is turbulent and dark, kicking up frothy waves in protest of the coming freeze. You feel the cold breeze in your face, refreshing and awakening you. The sand is riddled with small, smooth rocks. You take a step towards the water, and your foot falls on something soft. And squishy. Eeew...what was that? Was is a dead fish? A clump of algae? No, it's something...plastic. A plastic tube. "IT'S AN APPLICATOR!!!! EEEEEWWW!" You just stepped on someone else's used tampon applicator. And it's not the only one. Looking around, you see several pastel colored tubes, ranging from slim to maxi, littering the sand. The more you stare, the more there seem to be, popping up from the sand to surround you from every angle. Where can you turn? Where do you run? Looking up, you see a green glow from across the sand. Voices seem to be coming from it. Terrified, you call out: "Help! I'm trapped by used tampons!" You see a hand stick out of the green, and realize that it is a fabric tent. The hand beckons you to come closer. Tiptoeing through the tampons, you reach the tent. Slowly you lift the flap....and ENTER.

Welcome to the Green Tent! As you may have guessed, being the type of person that would read a blog about reusable menstrual products, the authors of this blog are three females who have had it with the pollution caused by paper pads and tampons. Inspired by Anita Diamant's book "The Red Tent", countless product testimonials, and many glasses of wine, we have decided to try and make a switch to reusables.

We weren't always on board with the idea keeping and washing our blood-soaked hygiene aids. In fact, we used to get drunk and make fun of the gushing "customer testimonials" on the lunapads site for fun (and that's not even the most embarrassing thing we've done to entertain ourselves). Eventually, conscience and curiosity overcame self-conciousness, and we decided to suck it up and give it a try. And our recent retreat to Lake Erie (very much like the story above) made it all the more apparent that we need to do something before tampons take over the planet. For reals.

We hope you'll join us as we chronicle our adventures in the Green Tent. It's probably not going to be pretty, but it beats being trapped by tampons:)