And I suspect that you’ll spend close to as much, if not more, in the long run, on sponges than I did on my cup.

–Shana in MO

I like Harry Potter books reasonably well, although I wouldn’t call myself a “freak” on the subject. Just a freak in general ;-).

Sharon

I use about one pad a day during my period, and I know women who don’t use anything at all. We all heard about it from the wonderful Merav Sherman, and if you read Hebrew you should definitely check out her site at http://www.veset.co.il.

Just curious. Are you a Potter freak?

I hope that Crunchy Chicken can put up alot more detail on the website about the countries involved and the cultures from within those countries, the agencies involved, and some analysis of the cultural issues involved.

I also think that in many places in Africa you can’t talk about menstruation without talking about female genital mutilation.

Another issue, for us all I think, is that traditionally across many cultures women’s bleeding has been a time of power and timeout from daily affairs. I get that the girls being discussed have huge blocks to getting education and I’m not saying this initiative is wrong, however I think we need to examine the idea that women should be going to school or work when they bleed. I see a direct correlation between many menstrual cycle problems and the fact that we are expected to hide our blood and carry on as normal (i.e. as if we are men).

I also wish Crunchy well with the project

I went off my depo provera a year & a half ago when I had my tubes tied (so that _I_ would never be subjected to an unwanted pregnancy, no matter what else may be done to my body), and started immediately with reusable cotton pads. I ordered a trial batch, and sewed many more of my own using the first trial batch as a jumping off point. Only 2 times in the year & a half since I started menstruating again have I used disposables (during road-trips out of town when packing along soiled pads would be too much a nusance), and I’ve hated every minute.

I’ve recently started talking about it with coworkers (when the topic of our periods comes up), with friends….. I’m working on getting the word out in my small corner. It’s amazing how many women go “ya know…. I never thought about it like that, but you’re right?!?! Disposables ARE uncomfortable, and why AM I paying big bucks for something so necessary to my life, making somebody else rich for a product like this?!?!” I love seeing my friends walk away from one of our conversations with their eyes opened about this.

Thanks for reminding us how important it is to keep talking about even the most private of issues.

I suspect that never having to change a diaper has something to do with my reluctance…

Amelia - hurray for all those young women! It’s wonderful that they have someone like you to turn to! That’s cases of disposable pads never reaching a landfill nor tampons in the sewer. Good show!

Kerri

My dear husband has no problems washing my pads when it happens to be him doing the laundry. I’m actually kind of amazed by this! I don’t exactly love washing his dirty underwear!!! But, I guess I do it anyway, too. It just needs to be done.

And we have both washed enough dirty diapers that nothing makes us flinch anymore…