She Tried the Menstrual Cup Instead, But
. . .
An allergic reaction may explain this
problem in an e-mail I received recently:
I tried the Instead cup about six months ago and found it very comfortable,
but a bit messy. With a little practice (standing over the bathtub) I was
able to remove it without too many problems. On the other hand, my body
seemed to have a problem with it. After about two hours of being in, my genitals would start to swell up on the inside and
out, as if I were completely engorged or something (it reminded
me of when I was pregnant). It then became very difficult and painful to
remove and almost impossible to put a new one in. I'm tempted to try it
again to see if my body will still react that way. I really like the cup,
I only wish I could use it.
Ripping Pads and Tampons, but
Praising Cups and Diaphragms
Modesty almost prevented me from showing you
the first paragraph of this e-mail I recently received, and other parts,
but, what the heck, I should enjoy this while I can:
First, congrats for being a man with a brain. I was surprised
(happily) when I found out that the Curator of MUM was a male-person. But
then when I began reading and looking around I decided you were really
all right, and actually totally cool.
Now I have some general comments on menstruation and
my experiences. I just had my 40th birthday last month and as far as commercial
pads and tampons are concerned, I've tried them all: pads with belts, pads
that stick to your underwear, pads with wings, long pads, short pads, reusable
cloth pads, etc, etc. Ladies and gentleman, the truth is: pads shift, bunch,
and leak. Pad technology has reached its peak; nothing can be done to a
pad that keeps it from leaking. As for tampons, the ones made by the big
commercial companies are full of chemicals and materials that at the least
aren't good for you, and at the worst may kill you. One-hundred-percent
cotton tampons are safer from a health and environmental perspective, but
they are crumbly and they need to be watched more carefully and changed
more often as they are not chemically enhanced to be extra absorbent. On
my heavy days the most absorbent don't get me through the night.
Perhaps I was blessed with a wiser-than-usual mother,
or perhaps I just have a very strong sense of self and body, but my attitudes
about menstrual blood have never been "shameful" or "unclean"
or any of those things. Also I was lucky to learn about Native American
women's attitudes and practices about menstruation in my early 20's and
they made infinitely more sense to me than the stuff pushed by Madison
Avenue about menstruation.
Recently, through the MUM site, I found the Keeper menstrual
cup - I wish I'd found it years ago! Leaks don't bother me from an "unclean"
perspective, but stained and therefore ruined clothes do bother my wallet.
And we don't live in an age or culture where we can separate ourselves
during our menses like the Native American women could. The Keeper is the
most leakproof thing I've ever used, and no matter how heavy my flow the
most I've had to empty it is three times per day.
Some of the writings at [this] MUM [site] say that previous
menstrual cups have failed because women find them "messy" to
insert and remove, and they have to put their fingers inside themselves.
I do not understand this attitude at all. I guess Madison Avenue and cultural
conditioning run very deep indeed. Women put plastic douche nozzles, chemical-laced
tampons, not to mention the penises of some men, into their vaginas without
a second thought, and then balk at putting their own fingers inside themselves?
How can menstrual blood be "unclean" or "dirty"? That
is where a baby would grow if fertilization had taken place...common sense
tells you it could not be "dirty." As the Native Americans so
wisely say, we (women and men) would all be wise to remember that it was
this same blood that nourished and protected us in the womb.
And finally, Mr. Finley, I have something for you that
I didn't see anywhere in MUM. After I told a friend of mine about MUM and
she looked around at your site, she homed in on the information on Instead.
She tells me she knows where the idea for Instead really came from. Women
dancers and athletes have used diaphragms (the kind used for contraception)
as a menstrual cup for years. [A woman ballet dancer apparently invented
the cup in the 1930s - Harry Finley.] She has been using her diaphragm
this way for nearly twenty years; she found out about it from her college
coach. She says it has all the same advantages of the Keeper and Instead,
with the added advantages that it CAN be used for contraception. It can
be sized to accommodate changes after having children, but it isn't disposable
and so causes no pollution or environmental concerns like Instead. She
tells me she has known many women who use their diaphragms this way.
Thanks for your great site. I imagine you get a lot of
flack about it and a lot of insults too; you're a brave man to venture
into this area. I will add a link to MUM on my page of links for women
and my general links page.
Better Pap Smear is More Expensive
Cytyc Corporation, a company in Boxborough, Massachusetts, has created
the first improved Pap smear test - the Thin-Prep Pap Smear - since the
original test came out 50 years ago. The Pap smear detects cancer and other
abnormal cells of the cervix. But insurance programs
are reluctant to pay the extra $20-30 cost for the extra 65% abnormal results
it picks up.
Women Undervalued as Researchers
A study conducted at the University of Göteborg in Sweden showed
that women researchers looking for post-doctoral positions were consistently
rated lower by selection committees than the men they were competing with.
Even women whose publications were cited just as often
as competing men were judged as being less qualified; frequency of
citation is an oft-used measure of the importance of a publication.
Nature magazine reported also that
contestants who were colleagues of the selection committee
members got much better scores.
Did You E-mail Me in the Last Few Weeks?
Two Saturdays ago I lost everything in
my Eudora mail system, including all my e-mail addresses and messages, because
of a corrupt file.
Several people sent me their experiences with products, and now they're
gone. PLEASE re-send your messages! I want
to put these on this News page as soon as I can! And
other folks, please also mail me again!
Aren't computers just great? You can't live with them, and you can't
live without them.
© 1998 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
reproduce or distribute any of the work on this Web site in any manner or
medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected
violations to hfinley@mum.org
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