Six months ago, Selin Celikoyar bought his latest stamp and went to a reusable menstrual disc.
“I was already wary of stamps from an environmental point of view and also from an organic point of view. I felt that they were very wasted and expensive to continue to buy,” she said.
The flexible discs and other reusable menstrual products gain ground as an alternatives to the billions of single -use pads and buffers that are launched in the landfills each year. Products such as discs, silicone cups and vintage underwear can be reused for years, so they are profitable and durable in addition to helping people reduce waste. The popularity of the reusable alternatives has increased from the pandemic, when it was easier to experiment with period products in the privacy of a home bathroom, according to women’s health experts.
Celikoyar said that she had used buffers and pads for years because these are the options she grew up knowing. But when she saw her friend go to a menstrual record, she decided to try it too.
“The experience has changed the game,” she said.
About 12 billion disposable pads and 7 billion buffers enter the US landfills each year, according to Dr. Luwam Senmere, chief of obstetrics and gynecology in Kaiser Permanent Santa Clara. The pads are mainly plastic. Once in the discharge, they take up to 800 years to deteriorate, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Single -use pads and buffers are by far the products of the most popular period. Women’s health expert, Dr. Navya Mysore, said that it is not because they are better, they are usually the first options that children are shown.
“It was often like:” What did your mom used? ” What had your grandmother used? And that’s how you were introduced into the hygiene of the period, “said Mysore, a primary care doctor based in New York.
The most popular is the menstrual cup, which is inserted a bit like a stamp. The discs are inserted further, so that they do not interrupt sex. Both can hold several times more than a stamp and can remain inserted until 12 noon, instead of the four to eight hours recommended for stamps. Sowing has also said that the risk of toxic shock syndrome generally associated with buffers is much lower with cups and menstrual discs.
Disadvantages? The products require a technique to put them well, and harm it can become disorderly. The cups and discs should also be cleaned regularly with soap and water.
“It is difficult to do so if you are at work and you are in shared public toilets. It is not the most practical,” said Mysore.
The cups prevent leaks by creating an aspiration, so that people who use intrauterine devices for contraception may dislodge them if they remove a menstrual cup without breaking the seal.
The placement of discs, which does not use suction, can also take some time to get used to it.
“It’s high there, you don’t feel it, but it can sometimes be more difficult for women to remove them,” said Dr. Annemieke Van Eijk, epidemiologist of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
But for Celikoyar, the advantages of the discs prevailed over the disadvantages. She said that a longer change window made her pass a consecutive concert and a red -eyed flight without any concerns.
“There is an ease of use for modern women which is much better than traditional methods,” she said.
The menstrual cups and discs generally cost between $ 15 and $ 40 and are in different forms and sizes. They are available online and in pharmacies and large area stores.
“Ideally, you would like to experiment a bit on the type of cup that works best for you. And the cost can be a little prohibitive to do so,” said Van Eijk.
A reusable product can help save long -term money. Celikoyar believes that she used three stamps a day for seven days, about 20 per month. With stamps costing 20 to 25 cents each, someone who has passed to a reusable product would probably break even after a few months.
For people who prefer pads, the most common reusable option is period underwear, which is comparable to regular appearance underwear with an additional absorbing lining.
“These are nice because we see people getting irritated with the use of the pad,” said Sowing. “Due to the different materials that are in disposable pads.”
The disadvantage, just like with the pads, is the inability to say when it is absorbed all that it can.
Mystore said that this is why some of his patients use underwear as a backup and associate them with cups, discs or stamps.
“You can somehow mix and match different vintage products, depending on the strength of your flow and your rules for you,” she said.
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