Guys beware; this is another menstrual cycle post!

     Last post, Aunt Flow Part 1, last period I wrote about going off birth control, letting my body regulate itself and how our uncomfortable symptoms shouldn’t be the norm.
     I was super tired for about a week before this time. Dragging my feet up the flight of stairs to our lovely apartment after work every day, even after a four hour day, was tiring. For some reason I didn’t notice that it could be my body’s cycle making me so tired. Since I no longer have my daily pill to take I don’t notice where in the month I am most of the time. Because of that, I don’t always think about the preventative ways to help me feel better.
Preventative ways to easy your crampy, maybe grumpy week are fairly simple.
• Get more iron. Gross as it sounds you will be loosing blood, you need iron or you will feel tired. So if you eat meat, choose red a couple of times. If you don’t, then choose fruits and veggies with higher iron like dark leafy greens such spinach, chard, kale, or raisins. Listen to your body, if you are craving something there might be something you need in it – unless you are craving fast food.
• Go to bed earlier. Sounds simple but your body is tired from hormonal changes, let it do it’s job. Get out of the way.
• Drink raspberry leaf tea. I have a huge post coming about this lovely drink. It’s great, actually recommended for pregnant women to strengthen the uterus. Beneficial for us non-pregos too!
• Stay warm. Pull out your rice pack and heat it up. If you don’t have one, make your own. Rick made me mine, though I have misplaced them in the last two moves. Must find or make new ones.
• Since the cramping is muscular, you need proper nutrition beyond iron. Think calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
• Lastly choose your feminine products well. You want to make sure that what you are using down there won’t hurt you.

Feminine Products

     I know you are all dying to know what I use. Haha. Right. Well, I only recently started using something better. About four periods ago I realized that maybe my tampons and mini pads weren’t the best idea. I had developed a sensitivity to bleach. I knew that the cotton in the tampons was treated with bleach to make it uniform and clean looking. Oh my goodness! Duh! Of course I should not use them. So what do I use now? Are there organic tampons? Should I even use tampons anymore? After some research, I used up all the remaining tampons and switched to organic cotton.
     Since coming off birth control things got a little heavier. I had to have more coverage at night and didn’t want to sleep in a tampon. I picked up Seventh Generation Chlorine-Free Ultra Thin Pads with Wings for the nights. I’m not a huge fan. They aren’t cotton – I didn’t realize this when I bought them. I have one left and will try something else soon. I want cotton, that won’t cause any problems for sure. Some of the other things may or may not be irritating.
     The Seventh Generation pads weren’t thin enough for me to use as a back up thinner pad for the days when I wore tampons. (They aren’t thin really.) This time I read slower and picked organic – Natracare cotton panty liners untra thin and tampons regular and super. The day I started using them my lovely lady parts acted with much more grace. Oh yeah, and they are more comfortable. The panty liners don’t use plastic, so there is no poking. No artificial scents to mix with mine to create something evil. The tampons are short and fit much better than even some of the more popular brands.

     On a side note: one thing I find irritating about feminine products is all the waste. The applicator, the wrapping for the applicator, the box that is too big, most of it is unneeded. The “Natracare” products have less waste. The pantiliners are not wrapped individually; they only have the strip to cover the sticky line. They are compostable under the right conditions; however, I’m not going to try that on my porch. That’s a little too hardcore for me now. The tampons do not have an applicator and they are very tightly wrapped in a tiny amount of plastic. Both boxes have very little extra space, so there is very little waste!

     There are some other possibilities for feminine products that I have not used yet. One possibility is the cloth pads. I like the reusability idea. However, that’s more specialty laundry. Of course I’d worry about leaks.
     There are also cups, such as the Moon Cup, that you empty once or twice a day. The Moon Cup does offer non-latex, so that’s cool. They only have to be replaced every couple of years or so – little waste. However, I’d be worried about holding all that stuff inside for several more hours than one is supposed to wear a tampon. Because of money now, I won’t be trying either of these other options for now. If you have any thoughts on them, have tried them or done research, please feel free to share!