Do You Ju Ju?
I have to own up to being a late adopter of new things. I can't see the point of making changes unless there is a really good reason. Mostly it is laziness at the idea of expending energy learning something new, which may not give me a return for my valuable time. Time I might like to spend with a good book, for example.
For years I volunteered at Environment House and paid scant attention to the menstrual cups on our shelves. Mastering tampons as a teenager was a major milestone, they work (kind of) and are now an automatic part of my life; I don't have to spend too much time thinking about them. Unlike menstruating, which I do have to think about, unfortunately.
Everything changed when I had a conversation with a smart young woman who also volunteers in our EcoShop. She works full time in an office environment and told me she had been using her menstrual cup successfully for a few years. I mentioned this to another smart young busy woman, also volunteering at Environment House. Surprisingly, she told me she had also been using the menstrual cup for a few years, and would never go back to tampons. OK. I was interested now. It works.
So I had THAT chat with the other women volunteering at Environment House, who like me had thought a menstrual cup was not for them, and we decided to get over our preconceptions and give it a go. The young women gave us some excellent tips on using it for the first few months. Like changing it in the shower in the morning and at night. You can wear them for 12 hours, so this is really convenient.
And you know what? Changing to menstrual cups has been an excellent investment of my time and has reaped many benefits. I wish someone had talked me into being more enlightened years ago. So now I am talking you in to doing it. Right now. Smart women are on the move, away from tampons.
They are easy to use, really. It can be a bit tricky removing them for some women (not scary tricky, but there is a bit of wriggling it around involved), until you get the hang of it. This is why they don't leak. Because they fit snugly.
There are two different brands of cup on the market, the Lunette and the Ju Ju. I found removing the Lunette product easier than JuJu. But lots of women have no difficulty with Ju Ju, so that may just be my shape. JuJu is definitely softer and nicer to use. I bought both Lunette and JuJu to compare.
Local pride
And for a bit of local pride, JuJu was developed by Perth women who have won awards for this excellent product.
My trial and error moment was wearing it one day for 8 hours and it leaked. However I do getting flooding periods and now I know to change it after 6 hours on that one heavy day a month. Otherwise, not having to think about your period for 12 hours is simply brilliant. Great for plane travel. And now I have the hang of removing it in the toilet, if I have some privacy from the children!