Lunapads

Being an avid camper and a die-hard natural menstrual products user for years, one would think the two had collided by now. But oddly enough I had always been ‘fortunate’ enough to often not have my period while out in the woods, or I was near some more modern services that made using cloth pads and the DivaCup much easier.

This Thanksgiving weekend I was set to head out camping for three days with only pit toilets and my period started the morning we were leaving…

Honestly I haven’t yet reached the stage where I LOVE my period; I do love the idea of it and what it does for me as a woman, but the beginning of my period always brings along some major cramps and moodiness and I just want to curl up in bed with a hot water bottle or lay in the tub for hours on end. So the idea of being in the woods with all that discomfort wasn’t exactly getting me excited, I actually even considered skipping Thanksgiving with all my dear friends so I could have my tub nearby!

But really, that’s just silly. I’m a tough gal and while I don’t yet LOVE my period I do LOVE camping, so I put my silliness aside and headed out to the great outdoors. Now I want to share my little tricks with other outdoor enthusiasts so you don’t ever miss out on all the beauty there is to behold beyond our city’s walls.

I personally use a DivaCup during the day with Pantyliners or Deluxe Lunapanties and then a Long Pad at night. Using the DivaCup makes life a lot easier; although I did have to force myself to get up out of the cozy, warm tent to insert my DivaCup, because my flow isn’t that heavy I could leave it in until just before bed. I boiled some water at home and put it in a thermos so every time I had to head over to the outhouse for some intimate DivaCup placement; I had a way to wash my cup and make sure my hands were nice and clean before insertion (this is very important when you’re playing in the fire, making food, etc. without a sink nearby, always wash your hands well before using the DivaCup, you don’t want to add any bacteria to such a sensitive place!) If your thermos has a little cup on the top that really helps, just pour some hot water in there, empty your DivaCup into the pit and rinse it well in the cup. You can then pour a little more water over it, but hold on tight…you wouldn’t want to drop it down the outhouse, ugh! I don’t bother rinsing out my liners while camping, if it’s only for a few days they’ll be fine. If you’re going to be camping for longer, you may wish to find a creek or river for washing, or boil up a pot of water and get really fancy, then hang them in the sun…it’ll be like a little prayer flag of liners~

{Here’s me, stetching in the morning.}

Next big period moment…traveling to Argentina! This is where the DivaCup and Lunapads become so much more extraordinary, I can’t even imagine trying to travel and knowing I’d have to get past language and cultural barriers to find what I needed, it’ll all be packed in my bag and taking up such a small amount of space, yay!

If anyone else out there has tips to share, we’d love to hear ‘em…

This entry was posted on Friday, November 10th, 2006 at 5:02 pm by Sandra and is filed under Women's Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.