GladRags Gab

I have a way to fold my GladRags that I thought was unique. I remove my used pad and fold the long ends into the middle, essentially folding the soiled part onto itself. Then I use the wings to wrap up the sides and snap the snaps (upside down for them) on the top of this nice little package and it all seems very Japanese zen-like. One day I mentioned it to other GladRags employees and get a very blasé response, “Oh yeah, that way, nah I don’t usually do that.” So much for my brilliant discovery.

It worked, however, quite well when I backpacked in Nepal. I kept all the neat little square packages in a Ziploc until we camped in a place long enough for me to wash and dry them in a stream, or in one case until we got back to a hotel. In this instance, we happened to take a short flight and upon arrival in a small Nepali airport, my bag was searched. I think the man who searched the small canvas tote that I kept my GladRags in, including my Ziploc full of used but neatly buttoned up GladRags, was slightly more impressed with this innovation.

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Avid GladRags enthusiast Jenny Rose shares with us the story of the rag bag and her personal account of struggling with endometriosis (and a cyst named Janice) and the relief that she has found in GladRags.  Read on for some great takes on the 'Rag ~ Diana

My grandma Lucy, knitter and canner extraordinaire, sometimes mentioned the "rag bag” that she and her sisters shared.  In a household of women, it was a known secret – kept under the bed and well-stocked in a family of many teenagers close in age.  I don’t know if she and her sisters designed and sewed their own snapping pads or if the bag really was filled with rags as its name indicates (she died when I was 12), but I do know that she liked the quiet community it created in her childhood home.  While no one fought over cleaning the rags, she and her sisters did work together to find the best and most absorbent fabrics and argued over who got to use those rags when her period came around.

In my life, GladRags have been a savior.  I have endometriosis (and an ovarian cyst that I’ve carried for a year and a half and named Janice).  For me, this disease means really hard-to-control periods, near-constant bloating and pain.  Sometimes this pain translates to early-morning cowering on the bathroom floor – where my uterus seems to want to jump ship.  Disposables make me uncomfortable and self-conscious (and also wasteful), and other reusable devices are too invasive and sometimes painful.  When I discovered GladRags, well, I immediately saw a difference in my body.  Not only did I feel less self-conscious and “crinkly,” I also saw a marked reduction in pain.  Perhaps grandma was really onto something when she, too, sought out soft and cozy fabrics for her own monthly visitor!

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If you have ever wondered what a real person thinks about the Moon Cup (and not just one of us GladRaggers) you can check out Tracy's Moon Cup Diary here

Tracy offers a day-by-day account of what it is like to use a menstrual cup for the first time.  There are some ups and downs (and some hilarities) that I think will be helpful to any woman contemplating the leap to a reusable menstrual cup.

Just a disclaimer - yes, Tracy is a 'real' person and a 'true' supporter of menstrual alternatives, but she does stop into the GladRags office once a week to supervise the developmentally disabled work crew that comes in to help us out.  GladRags, upon Tracy's proposition, supplied her with a Moon Cup to help her with her diary, though none of us knew how it was going to work out (Tracy is a sponge and GladRag fan).  Read her diary to see what the final verdict is: http://mooncupdiary.blogspot.com/

Happy in autumn,

Diana 

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (my former employer of years gone by) has recently developed Lybrel, an oral contraceptive.  What makes Lybrel different from other combination estrogen and progesterone oral contraceptives is that Lybrel is taken 365 days a year.  No more of those sugar pills that give your body the necessary break from the outside hormones that it needs to have a monthly period.  Lybrel stops menstruation from occurring at all, which according to many doctors is a perfectly safe option.  According to Dr. Kurt Barnhart, Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Research for the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at UPENN in regards to Lybrel clinical trials, "It is our hope that based on these findings physicians will begin to more readily initiate dialogue with their female patients about continuous therapy — helping to eliminate the misconception that periods are a medical necessity and to emphasize the safety and viability of menstrual suppression."  Wyeth contends that women experience an increased quality of life due to not menstruating.  You can read an article about lybrel here: article

Wow.  Every day I am floored by the growing disconnect between the average woman and her body.  The natural cycles, which seem to have been working for the female body for thousands of years is all of a sudden deemed unnecessary by the medical elite.  We all know why we menstruate.  In the typical situation, each month the body prepares for the possibility of pregnancy by delivering an egg from the ovary to the uterus.  In preparation for the egg, the uterus builds up a nutrient rich lining.  When the egg is not fertilized, the lining sheds, hence menstruation.  It is a natural cycle, the ebbing and flowing of hormones.  Personally, I become suspect when medicine attempts to eliminate a natural function that serves its place in the balance of our bodies.  If it ain't broke, why fix it?

In addition, I wonder about the motivation behind the new drug.  Bleeding is gross and bad and we should feel bad about it right, so let's just make it not happen?  Are we going to get to a time when all women who are not trying to get pregnant medicate themselves so that they don't menstruate?  Will it become even more of a taboo to be a bleeding person?  I mean, it is already something that people have a hard time talking about and most of us do it.  What happens when most women don't?  Will those that chose to still bleed become ostracized and will menstruation become even more of a shameful activity? 

-Jodi Nan