Start using a Diva Cup (Change 99)

Gentlemen......this post may not be for you.  It deals with female bodily functions, and therefore, may make some uncomfortable.  If it makes you squeamish, I suggest you ask your female significant other, sister, aunt, mother, cousins, etc., to read it, as they may find it valuable.

I went out in the fall and bought a Diva cup.  For those of you who don't know the product, it is a re-usable menstrual cup.  More information about it can be found at http://www.divacup.com/   Why I haven't posted about it before now, has more to do with Mother Nature than myself.  As I am a woman of a certain age, menopause is right around the corner.   Thus, my bodily functions are not a reliable as they once were.  I wanted to experience using the DC a few times before I posted about it.

Well, I am still waiting for a few times, but thought I might as well let my readers know that I have tackled once of the biggest waste challenges that a woman can have.  The amount of garbage that the average woman uses for that week a month is unbelievable - estimates I've found on the Internet range from 300 lbs over a lifetime to 12,000 individual products.  Whatever the correct amount, it is a lot of waste.

The Diva Cup, and its sister products Moon Cup and The Keeper, have an average lifetime of 10 years.  So yes, I may throw it out eventually - but it's one item, as opposed to several thousand.  Not to mention all of the cotton, oil, water and energy I have saved by not buying factory products items over and over.

I had a conversation with a friend of mine when I bought it.  She has used one for several years, and is how I found out about the product.  I wondered why we hadn't been told about this kind of thing when health class had come around in high school.  She noted that although our grandmothers used re-usable rags, our mothers had the wonderful option of not having to deal with all of that mess - using disposable pads was an amazing invention.  Why would they teach their daughters about the old ways, when amazing new technology was available? 

I can understand her point, but I'm going to let my daughters know they have a choice.  They can be environmentally-friendly, and deal with Mother Nature in a fairly mess-free way.  I wish that I had found out about this product years ago.