The One Change That Worked: I Got A Period Cup – And Saved £120 A Year

I was 18 erstwhile I tried a menstrual cup for nan first time. I was studying astatine nan University of Edinburgh and Scotland had conscionable go nan first state successful nan world to make play products free to those who request them. The assemblage wellness work was offering menstrual cups alongside nan accustomed sanitary pads and tampons. I picked 1 up retired of curiosity and because I conscionable couldn’t defy a freebie.

I was utilized to spending £10 to £15 a period connected play products, much if I was caught short and had to do a panicked dash to an overpriced off-licence. As an eco-conscious teen I already bought non-applicator tampons but often wore a information sanitary liner underneath. It was an effort to support nan endless interest of dense periods astatine bay: will I leak, tally retired of supplies, aliases find a cleanable loo successful time? Even so, I leaked much often than I cared to admit.

When I first heard astir menstrual cups, I was sceptical. They sounded fiddly, messy and invasive; aft trying one, I realised it wasn’t astir arsenic analyzable arsenic I imagined. It took a mates of attempts to activity retired really to insert it decently but, erstwhile I did, location was nary going back.

Nearly 5 years later, my cup goes everyplace pinch me. These days I usage a collapsible version, which tin beryllium folded down into a lawsuit nan size of a tealight. It slips easy into my container –simple and discreet. After my play ends, I usage a cleaning cookware to sterilise it. I capable nan cookware pinch water, spot nan cup wrong and popular it into nan microwave. A fewer minutes later, it’s cleanable and fresh for nan adjacent cycle. Practical, if not peculiarly glamorous.

The benefits are huge. I prevention astatine slightest £120 a year, debar nan dryness and bulk of tampons aliases sanitary pads, and steer clear of nan toxic chemicals that are communal successful galore tampons. Menstrual cups are made from medical-grade silicone, past for years and consciousness acold gentler connected my body. My cramps person besides reduced since utilizing a cup.

I americium gladsome to debar nan bonzer magnitude of plastic, packaging and discarded that comes pinch utilizing disposable products, too. Using a menstrual cup has go an effortless, sustainable prime I tin make each month.

They are besides convenient. I quiet my cup each greeting and evening astatine home, and that is it. No much stuffing supplies into each container I own. It has ne'er leaked, moreover connected dense days, and travelling is overmuch easier. On a caller surfing travel to Morocco, wherever tampons were difficult to find, nan cup was a lifesaver.

The only point I miss is being capable to thief personification successful a pinch. More than once, personification successful a nationalist bath has asked if I person a spare tampon, and I person had to opportunity no. But switching to a menstrual cup has turned my erstwhile stressful play into thing truthful elemental that I hardly announcement it, and I haven’t looked backmost since.