bitchesgogreen-blog

[bitchesgogreen-blog]

Moving towards Menstrual Cups - An interview with Danielle Vagg

Q. Tell us a little about yourself?

A.I’m a teacher. I’m 29 years old. I like cooking and reading. I like reading people’s (oracle) cards and crystals. 

Q.Why are you passionate about the environment?

A.I suppose as I’m getting older I’ve just started to realise. It was last year we taught a new unit to our kids, just looking at the amount of single use plastics that we use everyday, and that's how we really focused on it for the kids. Just by trying to get them to be more aware of it made me more aware of my impact on the environment and it was pretty scary actually even just thinking about everyday life and the amount of crap that we throw out; it’s just so unnecessary. That has just made me aware of it and made me want to change the few things that I can.

Q.How did you originally find out about menstrual cups?

A.I think I had just seen it advertised on Facebook and Instagram; probably because I follow a lot of holistic & spiritual accounts.So it just popped up in my suggested advertisements and I began thinking that I should try it.Once i had researched it a little bit more I just found more and more reasons to try it. 

Q. What made you give it a go?

A.I had read an article about all the deodorisers and the bleach that they put into tampons. I’m trying to be a lot more conscience about the things that I put into my body. It made me feel uncomfortable knowing about all the chemicals used. There is also always the fear of getting toxic shock syndrome. I was due to get my period and I just thought I’d check if they were available for purchase at chemist warehouse and they were $40 so I thought yep, let’s give them a go.

Q.Is the cup comfortable to use? What kind of activities can you use it for?

A.Honestly once it’s in it’s so much more comfortable than anything else. I know that they say tampons should always be comfortable but sometimes you’re a bit like errr that’s not right. Honestly once it’s in there is no dramas whatsoever. You can still do everything that you normally do, exercise, i wouldn’t have sex with it in though.  It’s so comfortable to sleep in, I know you’re not supposed to sleep with tampons in; and pads are just so uncomfortable.They’re just yuck overall. Sleeping is awesome with the menstrual cup.

Q. What would you say is the best benefit of using a menstrual cup?

A.I like that there’s no chemicals in the cups, there’s no deodorisers. When you think about it, you’re like that can’t be good for your body. I like that fact that it is chemical free.

I like the fact that it doesn’t damage your ph level, because cotton can affect the ph levels in your vagina, so I like that this doesn't. I also like the fact that it reduces menstrual products going to landfill. I think I read somewhere that the average woman uses 12000 products in their lifetime and that all goes into landfill. There’s ones that are supposed to be organic and biodegradable, but they’re only biodegradable if they’re composted. How many people are out there composting their tampons. Probably not anybody that I know. So I like that. You think about how many women are in the world over a lifetime using 12000 products, its a lot and this way is so much cheaper. And also the convenience of it, you only need to change it every 12 hours. You can go and stay over at your boyfriend’s house stress free. I used to go over  and there would be no bin in the bathroom and you’re like err what do I do with all my stuff. Now i can just go to bed, wake up in the morning and have a shower without anyone being the wiser. 

Q. What brand do you use and why?

A.The Diva Cup is the one I bought and it seems good so far!

Q. Have you had any problems with the menstrual cup?

A.There has been a couple times I’ve been like.. I can’t get it out. It’s really like I just need to stop stressing about it, there’s no problem with it. As soon as you relax it’s super easy to get out, like what was i stressing about.

Q.What would you say to anybody looking to try them?

A.It’s really not as scary as you think it’s going to be. I was a bit worried about using it. Especially when I was using it for the first time; I was wondering if it was going to be messy. I just gave it a go the day before my period was about to start and I was like oh, this is great. There was just no discomfort at all. It probably took me about 2 goes to get the hang of it and now its just easy. I just think if you’re conscious of the environment and conscious of looking after yourself;  it’s a pretty good option to limit our impact on the environment.