GladRags Gab

We love to hear from our customers!

Read what Teresa from Oakland, CA had to say about her experience with GladRags: 

"Hi! I just wanted to fire off a quick testimonial. GladRags are a wonderful product on a number of levels. I am a new customer and have been using GladRags for about 3 months now. I am delighted that I am no longer putting disposable products into the environment, and I feel that the use of your product has improved my health and my comfort when having a period as well. The design is genius and well-executed; and you're absolutely right about cold water soaking doing the job, much to my amazement! And, it really isn't a lot of extra work. In just 3 months I've developed a simple routine to keep things flowing (please excuse the bad pun). The biggest challenge was finding a place in my small apartment to put the soaking container ! Thank you so much for working out this "technology" so that it was there and pretty well perfected by the time I was looking for it! Good work!"

Thanks Teresa! 

Dear GladRags.

 I've been a customer for seven years. I came across my first GladRags pad in high school while dusting shelves at the Knoxville Community Food Co-op (in Tennessee). After a few weeks, I braved up enough to try the Keeper. I've never looked back to plastic and paper since!  Meanwhile, I've seen Glad Rags products appear at a wider variety of stores, and found that more and more of my friends already know about alternative menstrual products before I launch into my self-inspired sales pitch.

This July, I'm leading a 2-hour discussion about women's lives and bodies for young women at the Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute in Radford, Virginia. SUUSI is a week-long intergenerational camp for UUs (and other quirky folks), and I've been going since I was a kid. This is my first year on Young Adult staff, and I'm looking forward to building a supportive community for other women ages 18-25. Much of the year, we cope with anti-woman advertising, strict gender roles, and sexual harassment, but SUUSI is a time for us to decompress, share hugs, and build friendships that are amazingly intense for only a week. The discussion is called Wonder Woman; meanwhile the guys have their own discussion called He-Manery.(he-he)

I'm writing to ask whether you can provide any materials for the discussion. I was delighted to find a lot of great links at your website that I'll be tapping into for discussion questions and information. My vision is to talk about some of the major issues young women face in a positive light, and I think having some GladRags around for show-and-tell would give us something concrete to celebrate. I believe that feminism is not at all abstract, and the way we treat our bodies is integrally related to the way we carry ourselves in society. I would love to show women pads and/or cups and sponges as a starting point for hearing their own stories about being women in the (southeastern) US today. Then at the end of the discussion, we would distribute the materials as door prizes. What do you think? Our budget is slim because the camp keeps costs low in order to be affordable, and the young adults don't exactly show up with bulging wallets. If you could provide anything, we would all be grateful (and excited)!

Thank you,

Isabel Call
 

And our answer to Isabel was a resounding "yes!" to her request for materials. We love articulate, caring women like Isabel who share the word about GladRags and other reusable options with other young women. Thanks, Isabel and have fun at camp!

Happy National Poetry Month! In a last ditch effort, before April, also known as National Poetry Month (www.poets.org) is over, I have penned a poem that has some relevance to menstruation, though barely. Maybe not surprisingly, menstruation has inspired many people to poetry, Sandra Cisneros and Lucielle Clifton among them. The website for the Museum of Menstruation, www.mum.org, has a category for poetry, with many other bleeding-inspired works. Perhaps poetic inspiration will strike you!

Wait ‘Til Jordy Hears This
by Michelle A.L. Singer

My email address differs from
Jordy Singer’s
By two numbers,
9 and 8.
If anyone forgets to add 9 and 8
To jmsinger,
The message goes to Jordy
And he or she
I don’t know which
Never asked
Kindly
Forwards them to me.

When we lived in China
And established our first ever email account
There was plenty of confusion
About email addresses
And Jordy came into play quite often.

When I didn’t get my period for three months
We’re pretty sure Jordy got an earful
Of the ensuing drama.
It turns out that I wasn’t pregnant
And that it sometimes happens
When you live abroad-
Your cycle stops
As if to see what’s going to happen next.

Ten years later, we’ve both
Kept the same email addresses
(Unheard of)
Though my physical address
Has changed eight times
And who knows how many for Jordy.

Ten years
And the other day
He (or she)
Still not sure
Still haven’t asked
Forwarded a wayward message my way.

Ten years,
And I’m late
Waiting to see if I’m pregnant
Again.

P.S. I’m not. Two days after writing this, I got my period. Even though I had taken two pregnancy tests that showed negative, nothing is the final word like bleeding. At times like these when technically I should be wishing not to bleed, I can’t help but still enjoy getting my GladRags out. Somehow they still seem fun to me.

-Michelle 

This announcement below is from Marwin, who is doing a menstrual forum. Thanks Marwin, for letting women know about their options.

-Brenda 

Hey everyone!

I am hosting an event called “On the Rag”.  It's a forum night….about your period!This event is taking place on Monday, April 14 2008 at 7:30 PM.  It will be at SUNY Albany in Albany, NY in the Humanities building room 116.
I am going to give a talk about the history of disposable feminine products, the problems with them, and alternatives that are available to women.  Then, a forum-style discussion will follow.  I received donations of cloth pads from women who make their own pads, as well as Gladrags pads!  The ladies at Gladrags made a generous donation of several pads in various colors and styles which I am going to raffle off at this event.  I also received a sample Keeper and Mooncup that I unfortunately cannot raffle off.

I am so excited preparing for this event!  A lot of the preparing I had to do for this forum was looking back into articles I wrote a few years ago from a zine I made.  It featured several articles about radical menstruation.  One was about finding out about cloth pads, buying a few, and then moving on to making my own cloth pads!  These experiences really changed my views about menstruation and my body 180 degrees.  I used to hate my period so much, but I felt a lot better about it after putting the effort into taking care of my body.  Making pads was fun for me, improved my sewing skills, and it actually made me excited to get my period because I wanted to try out my new Hello Kitty island print flannel pads!  Come to think of it, the first pads I actually bought were Gladrags seconds and I based my own designs off of Gladrags.

I wanted to do this forum because I really want to promote the usage of cloth and/or menstrual cups/sponges to other women.  SO MANY women do not even know that these things exist!  Or, if they do, they have negative views about cloth (it's dirty/smelly/leaks/it's gross etc.)  I want to dispel these myths with people by providing them with information, and giving them a hands-on experience with really beautifully made cloth pads which were generously donated by several companies.  Having the pads is great; there are so many styles to show people!  I also want to hand out patterns or websites with printable patterns and encourage women to make their own pads as well.

I am going to write another blog entry after the Forum night, so check back within the next week for more info (and possibly pics!) of how it went.

Anyone in the Albany area hopefully see you there!

–Marwin Margolies

Did you ever have the dream that you’re pregnant? That very real dream, the one you have before you’ve even had sex, but it feels so real that you don’t notice that important fact? I remember that dream, more so I remember waking up from that dream—the cold wash of pure relief. (Do men have a version of this dream?)

After I started having sex, there was the late period. The agonizingly late period, accompanied by panic and then (finally!) the warm wash of pure relief, maybe even tears, as the blood made its entrance.

Then there was a long stretch of a more mature handle on birth control that left me with just the monthly rhythm, surfing through the cycle and the secrets of its language.

And then, like a force of nature, it was time to get pregnant and we did. Not having a cycle every month was quickly and thoroughly overlooked in the face of such an event as waiting for a baby. Because I nursed my daughter for almost two years, my period didn’t come back for at least a year after she was born. But when it did, well, the Chinese call it “gui lai” and it was a real event—a marker of my changing body, changing back.

I had another child and again promptly forgot about menstruating or what it was like to not menstruate. When my “gui lai” came this time, also nearly a year after my son was born, my body sang with it. With two children, my body well knew the reality, not just the fearful dream, of what this meant. I could get pregnant!

And since that fateful day of singing fertility, it has been a game of “maybe/maybe not.” Will we do it all again? Every day brings a different answer.

People will be all over the board, having vastly different experiences of fertility and what their menstrual cycle had meant to them; for me, it surprises me that I don’t fear pregnancy now that I know what it means to go truly sleepless and compromised by the demands of caring for children every day. But in fact, it’s the opposite.

Now every month there is still the waiting, the speculating, sometimes the counting of days, the recounting of possible “slip-ups,” and yet, when at last the question is answered, the blood is here, I am not pregnant, there is no wash of relief anymore. Just a little pit in the stomach, an almost inaudible sigh. Maybe it’s not surprising at all. For me, knowing, really knowing, what it is to get pregnant and have children, it’s not the magic of the menstrual cycle I feel (although that’s there too), it’s the magic of babies that I’ve got my eye on.

by Michelle A.L. Singer 

After reading Ellen's story (see below), Talia had her own sad tale to tell.  Read on!

It was just yesterday that I finished my first period fest with my *new* mooncup. So of course, the next thing to do? Sanitize via boil-age. Well, the water was just taking forever to boil. I decided to go downstairs real quick and planned to quickly return to the kitchen and tend to my newly clean lil moo'cup.

2 hours later.

The water boiled, evaporated and is nowhere in sight. My poor moo'cup is no longer with us. It is now a charred mess that thankfully did not lead to my house burning down.

 I suppose excessive boil-age is not covered under the guarantee warranty??

; )

Editor's note: Boiling your silicone cup is a-ok (just don't let the water boil off!) but it is not necessary for sanitation.  The vagina is strong and can accept foreign objects that are not entirely sterile…

     My husband Josh came home from work with a flower-shaped package wrapped in brown paper. We were already at the dinner table and he said he had something for his Valentines. He pulled out three red roses for me, a dark pink rose for my mother, and a light pink rose for our daughter Ruby. As he walked around the table to Ruby, who was sitting next to Jaden our two-year-old son, and handed her her rose, my son’s eyes never left the empty brown paper in his other hand. The look of sweet expectation was written all over his face. When Ruby’s rose was in hand, his expectation grew. He looked at the brown paper. “Where’s my flowuh?” he said. We quickly siphoned one of mine across the table and Josh handed it to his son. Jaden’s little face beamed. We all oo’ed and ah’ed, and he was nothing short of thrilled with his “flowuh.”     We at the table knew that boys don’t get flowers, but he didn’t. I hope it takes a long long while before he gets that message. And from now on, we will do our best to take the gender out of beautiful flowers. With his innocent anticipation, Jaden reminded me of the critical need to foster the feminine in men.     Every year around Valentine’s Day, playwright and activist Eve Ensler continues to push toward her goal of ending violence against women with V-Day—originally celebrated by staging productions of her play, The Vagina Monologues. Entering her tenth year and with the intention of continuing until-the-violence-stops, her appearances and events are now year-round and star-studded. Proceeds from every show, event, speech, and t-shirt go toward charities that help end violence against women. In addition to going to an event and furthering the necessary steps toward that worthy goal (www.vday.org), see if you can’t also find a way to nurture the feminine in a man you know. It might very well have the same effect that Ensler’s going for.

-Michelle 

The basics about Herpes Simplex Virus are as follows;    

• About 50 percent to 80 percent of the adult population in the United States has oral herpes (commonly called cold sores or fever blisters), with as many as 90% having the virus by age 50.
• Most people contract oral herpes when they are children by receiving a kiss from a friend or relative.
• About one in five persons in the United States has genital herpes; however, as many as 90 percent are unaware that they have the virus.

As these facts display - herpes is quite common and while the symptoms are uncomfortable and sometimes emotionally devastating - please rest assured that there are many natural treatments to aid in the healing process.

Herpes is an infection that is caused by a herpes simplex virus (HSV). Oral herpes causes cold sores around the mouth or face. Genital herpes affects the genitals, buttocks or anal area. Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). You get it from having sex, even oral sex. The virus can spread even when sores are not present and that is why it is always important to communicate with your sexual partner(s) about your diagnosis of HSV.
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I stumbled upon the GladRags website about 2 years while 'mindlessly' looking up cloth diapers on google.  I don't even have kids yet, but I grew up on cloth diapers, and want my kids to do the same.  Even though I had always known diapers were bad for the environment, I had never even thought about how pads were just as bad!  I had also started boycotting tampons around this time b/c one of my friends who is a pediatric nurse had a patient with toxic shock syndrome and it freaked me out.

Once I started using GladRags (1.5 years ago), I never looked back…I love them!  Maybe it's just in my head, but I think having a completely cloth pad feels so much cleaner b/c my skin can breathe, as opposed to a disposable pad that has the plastic-like lining that sticks to your underwear.  They have cute designs, prettier flowers, etc…I feel great when I wear them!  And all of my friends are getting hooked on them too…!

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As announced in last Friday's newsletter, Jennifer Purcell, a Portland-based naturopathic physician and herbalist, will be posting monthly entries on GladRags Gab discussing a variety of women's health issues.  Dr. Purcell's first topic is PMS.  Get ready for some great thoughts on this prolific 'syndrome'.  ~Diana

PMS - a word so common to women these days as 85% of us experience at least one symptom per month.  The average onset is 26 years of age and the symptoms are wide and varied.  So much so that they are now classified by an increasing number of subtypes based on predominating symptom.  But whether it is breast tenderness, bloating/distension, cramping spasms, migraines (and on a on) - it all leads to one thing - Imbalance.

This is where is gets tricky - finding where the balance lies.

Often the first place we investigate is the reproductive system itself.  But if you are ovulating and bleeding monthly the problem may be elsewhere.  A good place to look is the liver.  The liver's job is multifactorial and it is one of the most important organs of the human body.  In relation to PMS, it is a contributor in the production of hormones.  The short version of the story - if your liver is strained or overworking, your hormonal balance could be disturbed.

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