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The Hygiene Muck. Part 1

Being a female is tough. PERIOD.

Most females deal with the pain of menstruation each month, needing menstrual products to maintain good hygiene. Between the 4 females in my family, we spend an estimate of US$144 in total on sanitary products each year.

I would be able to afford around 96 bowls of laksa with that same amount…omg

Every time we stock up on more menstrual products, I wonder how much waste we contribute, so I decided to conduct a survey about the sustainability of menstrual products. From the 60 people who took part (55 of which identified as females, and the other 5 identifying as males), US$95 was the average amount spent on menstrual products per year among females. But out of my participants, there were 4 who used reusable pads and menstrual cups that only cost between US$10-15!

That is almost 8 times cheaper than the average mentioned above, and even more so as reusable products last longer. Why then, are people still buying disposable products?  52.6% of participants in the survey said they would not use reusable menstrual products citing reasons like “inconvenience” and “hygiene concerns”.

While the definition of convenience is subjective, I can understand the paranoia that surrounds the cleanliness of reusable menstrual products. However, I think that anxiety applies more to reusable pads rather than menstrual cups. To justify that, I will compare the methods of cleaning between the 4 brands of reusable menstrual products used by those 4 participants.

Brand	Method of cleaning
Organicup	Since they were all the same, I will only list methods from one source. Rinse with clean water pH balanced and scent-free soap recommended if required. After your period, boil Organicup for 3-5 minutes
Divacup
Formoonsa cup
Quinbi (reusable pads)	Rinse it under running water. If there are still stains, on the pad, the brand recommends its own eco stain remover and soaking powder.

While Quinbi’s cleaning methods require just water and stain remover, the menstrual cups offer me the extra guarantee of killing off bacteria when boiling it. Thus I would trust it to be more hygienic.

I feel that another reason preventing females from choosing menstrual cups is the cultural and religious stigma of inserting a foreign object into the body. When agrarian societies led to the development of the 3 great monotheistic religions and thus the patriarchy, the concept of a woman’s virtue became increasingly important. A female is expected to keep herself “pure”. Thus I believe that the fear of “losing her virginity” (the loss of which tested by the presence of a hymen) from deeply ingrained patriarchy, hinders many females from choosing a sustainable lifestyle when it comes to feminine hygiene.

Would you look at the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into now…

Being a female is tough indeed. And while we have explored why many females would not use reusable menstrual products, perhaps the environmental impacts of disposable menstrual products in my next post will be able to offer up more insight on how this form of gender expectations have impacted our environment.