People don’t like talking about periods, men seem to think it is deadly that a woman can bleed for the best part of a week and not die and women are stuck in ancestral shame which took us away from the “red tent” days when it was actually celebrated.
I want to open a conversation here and plant some food for thought, I certainly hadn’t thought about this until recently and it got me thinking…..
I buy all organic fruit and veg and this last 12 months have been making a very conscious effort to swap out “dirty” and toxic chemically enhanced skincare and cleaning products as these chemicals play havoc with hormones but I didn’t give much thought to this area (you know the bits below).
Menstrual products are made from both plastics and cotton which are usually sprayed with chemical pesticides during production. Most tampons and towels are sprayed with a chemical called chlorine bleach which is used to make them look white. The chlorine bleach also produces a chemical called dioxin which is highly toxic and incredibly carcinogenic for the human body.
Like plastics, these chemicals can wash into rivers and oceans, where they destroy biodiversity, and, being trapped in the cotton fibres themselves, end up in the body.
Studies show that plastic and chemicals such as the above mentioned wreck havoc with our endocrine system which imbalance our hormones sending the whole system out of balance.
Here are some ideas for an organic and healthy period
1. Organic Tampons
Plastic tampon applicators take 500 years to biodegrade, so switch to a non plastic applicator and opt for a non applicator tampon such as calalay, or Ohne, or Totm
2. Reusable products
Keep your plastic footprint down with the reusable tampon applicator from Dame; or maybe a pretty, washable bamboo menstrual pad from Bloom & Nora would float your boat. Otherwise check out luxury period underwear brands Wuka and SheThinx. Then you have menstrual cups from OrganiCup or the Flex disposable menstrual disk which catches (rather than absorbs) menstrual fluid and is the only internally-worn product not linked to TSS. This is a great website with lots of natural products and ideas – Earthwise Girls
3. Biodegradable bags
These are literally FabLittleBag’s (fablittlebag.com) which are easy-seal bags from cornflour for your used tampons and pads, which means they are biodegradable in landfills so cleans up in every aspect of the flow!
I’d love to hear from you, have you thought about your bits recently? Do you need to make a change for happy healthier period?
I look forward to hearing from you
Love
Naomi xx