Lunapads

I have many reasons for praising and choosing to switch from disposable pads to Lunapads! First and foremost is my health. I was HORRIFIED when I learned about the nasty chemicals inside of disposable pads - and the fact that my poor vagina was the most absorbant part of my body. YIKES!!!

My other reason was activity and comfort. I live on a farm in Scotland where I spend a good amount of time wrestling sheep and herding cattle and all manner of physical work. Having my period has always been a problem because the disposable maxi pads are so useless! They roll up and become narrow so everything leaks. They tear apart. And they chafe in places that shouldn’t be chafed! This is not very helpful when you have several miles to walk behind a herd of cattle! Then, trying to sleep at night with a hard plastic-y sticky pad poking me here and there made my period misery from sun up to sun down!

This may sound like a strange reason but I also changed over to Lunapads because of sanitation reasons. I’ll get to that…

My last, but definately not least, reason for choosing Lunapads is the Earth. Disposable maxi pads may be small but a lot of small things add up and become very big! As a farmer I am very aware of the importance of responsible stewardship of the Earth!

I discovered Lunapads on the internet, but at first the price put me off. Then I did a bit of calculating and realized that Lunapads would pay for themselves in several ways! So I bought one pad and liner for a trial run.

The first thing I noticed, right away, was how comfortable the Lunapad was compared with the disposable pads. It didn’t chafe. It didn’t stick. It didn’t feel heavy and gross like a diaper. It didn’t fall apart or roll up into a narrow useless thing! I was very impressed.

There was no noise when I walked. I didn’t have to cringe in a public bathroom stall as I unwrapped the plastic cover from a plastic pad while everyone for a mile around heard CRINKLE! CRINKLE! CRINKLE!

Another unexpected surprise was that no one really knows what they are - so if a Lunapad liner falls out of my purse or, like what happened today, someone walks in as I’m carrying a handful of liners away from the dryer - they have no idea what this soft cloth item is! I can say, “Oh that’s my hanky” or “That’s my cloth for my glasses” and no one is the wiser. **Grin**

But what impressed me the most was… the lack of nasty smells. Changing my pads was always a disgusting adventure. All that sweat and blood hanging out in a plastic chemical-laden pad made the task unplesant. And then I had to pry the stuck-on pad from my underpants, wrap it up and try to tuck it into the trash. That was far too much hands-on stuff for me. And no matter how hard I tried to keep my bathroom odor free, the trash still had a strong smell from the discarded pads. This stench haunted me at work and when I visited people as well. Stinking up my bathroom was bad enough - but to stink up someone else’s bathroom??? Oh brother!!

With the Lunapad all I had to do was pull out the liner and rinse it under the tap in the bathtub. Then, I tossed it into a bucket to soak. It all took maybe 30 seconds tops. (I spent the same amount of time - or more - prying, wrapping and trashing the disposable pads!) That was it! No nastiness. No strong smells. No disposal issues. No old pads building up in the trash can. AND!! I no longer had to worry about the cats and crows pulling the garbage bags apart and spreading my used pads all over the road for the whole world to admire as they drove and walked by!!

On top of the amazing comfort and the lack of stinky waste in the trash, I also felt good about what I was doing for the environment and for my bank account. I realized that if I found many small ways to save money I’d save a lot of money! It all adds up!

And finally, there is another thing that I discovered when I made the switch to Lunapads. It may sound strange but it’s true! My period no longer feels like a medical-ized “problem.” I’m no longer using these glaring-white plasticy bandages. And I’m no longer wrapping up and disposing of these bandages in disgust. All of this negativity has been removed! I am using a soft cloth pad, rinsing it out in the tub and treating my period like the thing it is: just another natural part of ME! Not some nasty stinky medical “problem” that needs to be dealt with in a detached and disgusted manner.

And just to add another piece…

Ever since I made the full switch to Lunapads my period has totally changed. I can’t prove it because I never had any medical documentation before hand. All I can say is, “I’m not making this up!” My husband is just as shocked - and he’s mad too because he feels that women are being lied to about disposable pads and that they must be very bad things indeed!

My period has always been living hell. It has dominated my life and made my job or my college a nightmare as I slogged through days and days of pain, crushing fatigue, and cramps that would go all the way down my thighs and the small of my back. I HATED my period!

I made the switch to Lunapads and INSTANTLY my cramps diminished. I had noticeable cramps the first day but they were not crippling like they usually are. And then…they were gone. No cramps! I normally have crippling cramps for a good four days. This is scary. Because…what on Earth is causing the cramps then???? The chemicals in the store bought pads??? This is something that needs to be investigated! My husband is horrified that women might be being poisoned without anyone giving a care!

Also, I seemed to bleed everything out on the first day of my period! I’ve never bled so much in my life - all without cramps. (How is THAT possible??) And so my period lasted a mere day-and-a-half with the rest of the days being nothing but very mild light bleeding.

The only thing I can say to describe what everything felt like is this: Relaxed. It was as if my body were relaxed and everything flowed out naturally without pain or anything to hold it back. I’m wondering…do the chemicals in the store-bought pads do something to the female body that makes the cervix not open up enough?? That’s just a guess on my part but I do wonder. If the cervix was not opening up enough then the womb would have to work really hard to get the stuff out…and that would cause major cramps and make the period last longer!!

Anyway, I think that you Lunapad ladies have stumbled upon something (intentionally or not?) that is extremely important. Millions of women have really bad periods and they are basically waved aside by the medical profession and told, “Deal with it. Everyone has cramps.” But what if these disposable pads are causing cramps and other really nasty gynecological problems?? Shouldn’t we women KNOW about this and be WARNED?? Does Lunapads get a lot of testimonials about cramps and other period problems disapearing? If so, is there anything we women can do to make this fact known to the public so that this phenominon can be investigated??

I’m not trying to be a zealot, I just think that we women always get short-changed when it comes to health issues!! Men get treated and women get told to shut up and deal with it. Just a thought!

At any rate, I would say that switching to Lunapads has been one of the best decisions I’ve made. I feel SO positive about my period now. I am avoiding the poisons that would be absorbed into my body via disposable pads. I know that I am supporting a small woman-owned company. I am “doing my bit” for the environment (every little bit counts!) and I am saving money!

All these great things - because of a cotton maxi pad! Who knew??

Michelle C.
Scotland

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 30th, 2007 at 12:15 pm by Guest and is filed under Feminism, Guest Bloggers, 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.