eco menstrual stuff - boring for men

[red]

yeh i would be interested in that too

but you have to be careful with stats.. I mean UK government recently confirmed that there was more energy used in washing nappies than using disposibles.... BUT... that does not take into account landfill - ie every single disposable nappy every made is still around.. (in fact if Henry VIII wore them, they would still be around...) only looked at energy
AND their figures included tumble drying and ironing the nappies!!!

I used cloth nappies on my son.. the square folding kind, and dried them all on a clothes horse.. unless it was a sunny day. I dont iron ANYTHING but seriously.. who would iron nappies? what for?

in Britain we throw away 8 million nappies A DAY...

back to sanpro - yes I would like to see the stats.. but you would also have to take into account the trees felled to supply, and the landfill side too.

[possum]

Presumably invented by a man.....

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100001706.html

Good to see one of the possible side effects is "heavy menstrual bleeding"

Nicely quoted out of context.
the myrena coil is often prescribed to those to control heavy bleeding. And speaking from personal experience, it does just that.
The possible side effects have to be listed no matter how rare they are or how short term they may be.

As for who invented it, I don't care, it works.

[possum]

. It's not exactly cheap, but no contraception (except for not doing 'it') is.

In the UK it is free. Here I believe $70 (25 pounds)

[Clara]

Re environmental impact of washable nappies.

The government study that concluded that there was no difference in environmental impact, as since been retracted by the government. The research methodology was highly dubious - the disposable nappy group was something around 2500 and the washables about 250! In addition they assumed that sposie users used 5 nappies a day whereas washers used 10, this is not a reflection of modern cloth nappy use. I´d do nothing but change nappies all day if it was!

I saw someone else put it this way on another forum: if there is no greater environmental impact from disposable nappies, why don´t we replace ALL cloth items with disposables?

Now I don´t think that anyone can argue that case and common sense would tell us that it has to be better to wash and reuse and hand down, than have a onetime product.

Re that coil thing

I personally believe that our bodies are not the "black boxes" that drug companies tend to treat them as. We are living organisms seeking balance, we do this through the production of hormones amongst other physiological processes. If you add relatively large amounts of hormones (and they have to be relatively large to knock the body of its natural course) over a prolonged period of time this is going to have an effect. The traditional bc pill has been shown to cause increases in breast cancer rates and post menopausal osteoporosis, why should we assume that anyother synthetic hormone based product would do differently?

Now your body your choice, though it has to be an informed choice - doctors IME don´t usually volunteer information on side effects. The problem is that coil users piss in the water others end up drinking or eating the fish out of, sure it gets cleaned chemically but that does not remove residual hormones.

We are a get ill and then fix it culture. Sadly there is no great money to be made from women who given the correct naturopathic advice have put their bodies in a better place to fight off these nasties naturally. A lot of the hormonal imbalances that create these problems could be fixed not by adding anything in, but by removing environmental factors. We are exposed daily to low level of hormone imitating products in our cosmetics, in our food, in our furniture and paint....the list goes on.

I´m not speaking from lack of experience either. When I was younger I used to get the injection and that stopped my periods dead, I thought it was great at first, then when I got freaked out about it and stopped. It took 6 months for them to return, that´s some upheaval.

[red]

the thing is its just not simple, and in the end every woman must arrive at their own decision. I had not thought about the effect of coil users passig on the drugs into the water system.. and its an interesting thought.

Whilst you are correct in that the oral pill increases that chances of breast cancer - you missed off the fact that it decreases other cancers such as ovarian.
You can argue that having periods is natural.. but its not. natural is having mulitple pregancies.. most of which will not survive into adulthood, prolonged breast feeding, and then early death - probably by mid thirties, probably during childbirth. I am one of the people that would have died in childbirth, if we did things naturally.
So you could argue that chemical intervention is the nearest you get to natural, i.e conning your body into thinking its pregnant all the time.

then if you play the statistics game.. if you dont use an contraceptives.. a number of women will die in childbirth and through pregnancy complications, via unplanned pregnancies. I wonder how that figure would compare to the risks of taking OC ? then of course often using the M-coil or OC can help women with bad PMT etc.. and living in misery for 25% of your life is not particularly good nor natural.

Having stated all that, my personal choice is not to take the chemicals into my body - I think its the best choice for me. and I will respect the choice others have arrived at because - as I said.. not simple

[Annpan]

I was put on the pill at 13 to stop heavy periods... I got SEVERE morning sickness Had to take them in school and was still off sick for 4 days a month I was then given iron tablets as I was loosing so much blood. I was taken off of the pill but kept on iron tablets for several years... until I had to start paying for my prescriptions, then... brainwave, broccoli is high in iron... I ate broccoli soup and developed a taste for raw cabbage and spinach... my heavy periods stopped.

After giving birth to my daughter last year I was put on 4 different vitimin and mineral tablets, I had to convince my doctor that I ate a healthy diet and I didn't need them. ... all we were given to eat in hospital was grey meat, grey potatoes, grey pasta, over cooked veg (I was sneered at for asking for extra sprouts)

My point being that I belive that diet can cure all sorts of problems and the NHS (and modern doctors in general) seems to be totally oblivious to this.

It is unacceptable for contreception to be the first port of call for doctors treating menstral problems.

We are women, we should be proud to be women, we are not second class citizens. We should learn to deal with our bodies in a natural and responsible way. Menstrating is a huge part of what makes us female and reminds that our bodies are linked to nature in a way we can't even understand. It is wrong to try to stop this natural process.
(cor what a speach)


Having said all this, we also have to have the courage to use modern medical science when it benefits us. There are obvious cases when natural remedies simply do not work. I just wish more doctors and women would give respect to these natural remedies...Please!


As for the mooncup, hmm, never tried it, I do use disposable sanitary pads but will look into getting some washables after reading previous posts. does anyone think you can compost sanitary pads (I was thinking of the blood being high in summat) or is that too grosse.

[Clara]

does anyone think you can compost sanitary pads (I was thinking of the blood being high in summat) or is that too grosse.

I think the fluid would be good (lots of cultures use placenta as medicine), however I think most sposies are full of gels (that "lock" the moisture) and are high in plastics. So probably won´t compost and even if they did, wouldn´t be very organic.

Possum - I think we have to agree to disagree I felt my heckles raising about medical childbirth and I´m not going there.....

[rag_grrl_nz]

WEN posted a great reply to "that" recent rubbish on nappies, the same applies to sanpro:
http://www.wen.org.uk/general_pages/New ... 4.7.07.htm

WEN links on sanpro:
http://www.wen.org.uk/sanpro/contacts.htm

[the.fee.fairy]

I'm a confirmed mooncup user - i love it more than i love anything else. I have 2, just in case one goes walkabout.

I have found that in my experience, my periods are shorter and a lot less painful.

I don't take the pill or any other kind of chemical stuff either - i have polycystic ovaries which means that my body creates its own hormones at funny times and decides on the spur of the moment what it wants to do (basically...) so i prefer to let it do that. I recognise the signs of shark week and treat myself accordingly.

Whilst i can understand that mirenas and pills have been given to some women and have had great effect, i also detest the way that doctors treat womens bodies - i've been asked if i'm on the pill when i've gone in with an ear infection (does it make a difference? would being on the pill stop me getting ear infections..!!) and told 'well, you might meet a man who wants his own children one day' when i asked for a full hysterectomy!! Like i'm just waiting for a man to plant his seed in me... I've been poked and scraped and scanned, and then told i can't have children - then, sent to the Maternity unit to have another scan!! What a kick in the teeth. Still, they won't give me the hysterectomy i want because 'you might want children one day'.

So, yes, i digress...medical science can be wonderful, but at other times i wish it would keep its nose out...

However, i did have a locum one day who was great!! I was asking about getting an iud - on of the plain copper ones, and we were talking about contraception. I asked whether the coil would be ok to use with a mooncup. She didn't know what one was, so i talked about it with her. Next time i went there, she pulled me to one side and almost hugged me!! She said that she'd done some research and bought herself a mooncup, and just wanted me to know how much she loves it, she's also recommending it. So there are some good doctors out there!

[Wombat]

This is probably a bit off topic but anyway.....

I used to work with a Scotsman and we were talking about Panadol when he said his girlfriend used quite a lot of it on her budwick. It took me a while to work out what her budwick was - Scots for bad week ie when she had her periods. Hmmm, so there you go

Nev

[Shirley]

This is probably a bit off topic but anyway.....

I used to work with a Scotsman and we were talking about Panadol when he said his girlfriend used quite a lot of it on her budwick. It took me a while to work out what her budwick was - Scots for bad week ie when she had her periods. Hmmm, so there you go

Nev

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

[magenta flame]

I put this anwser in another thread that also had the same post ..So I suppose I'll put it here to

I always get a bit worried when people talk about ECO products.

Hygeine products are either biodegradable or if disposed of properly, by burning. People complain about mixing plastics with our ECO system, but aren't our own bodies part of that ECO system? and inserting plastic into your body cannot be a good thing. A company can make many claims about how the plastic is not harmful but aren't we putting trust in a company who's bottom line is to make money? I'm afraid this product won't get my vote.

[rag_grrl_nz]

I put this anwser in another thread that also had the same post ..So I suppose I'll put it here to

I always get a bit worried when people talk about ECO products.

Hygeine products are either biodegradable or if disposed of properly, by burning. People complain about mixing plastics with our ECO system, but aren't our own bodies part of that ECO system? and inserting plastic into your body cannot be a good thing. A company can make many claims about how the plastic is not harmful but aren't we putting trust in a company who's bottom line is to make money? I'm afraid this product won't get my vote.

It's not plastic!!! It is medical grade silicon - the same type used for internal work. Nothing to do with breast implants before you go down that road.
Not only that but Silicon is the most abundant material on earth so it is also sustainable.
Don't knock it before you know all the facts aye?

ETA - the company who makes them is a small company run by women based in Brighton. Very nice they are too.

[possum]

Thing is, it is easy to sit there and say how natural you prefer things, that is great when you haven't got an servious medical conditions affecting the natural cycle.
I tried pretty well everything before the coil, it was very much a last resort, and is prescribed only as a last resort to women without children.
I can only compare the quality of life before and after. Before there really was no life worth living, I don't need to go into details.
So any possible "messing" with my hormones I don't care, it can be no worse than previously as they were already well and truely messed up.

It was not a decision forced on me by doctors, infact the solution was only taken after I had tried everything else. If women can find other therapies that work just as well, I fully support that, but don't make us feel guilty
about what we are doing to our bodies when all else has failed.

Edited to add
I respect your choice, but I wish people would respect others different choices. Believe me if I could wave a magic wand and sort things out naturally I would do it. But at least it is great that these days it is possible to talk about options without refering to it as "the curse".

[magenta flame]

Woah Hold up! What's all this?

AM I not entitled to an opinion? I said it would not get 'MY' vote. And I never used the word 'curse'! Sheeesh!