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Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

My wife's mind boggles that so much money is spent on this stuff when you can buy a menstrual cup every year or two and face almost none of the cons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_cup .. I wonder if this is one of those "the industry doesn't want this to happen" dealies. (Disclaimer: I do not have a vagina so don't have direct experience, but she raves about it.)

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I am used to traditional disclaimers such as "I work for the company ..." But I don't have a vagina has to be the strangest and best disclaimer all year :-). Have some karma

Someday I shall have to write a book to go with a title that popped into my head over the weekend:

   "Men; turns out we are all crap, who knew?"

My initial reaction as a person without a vagina is "Ew, isn't that a bit like installing a catheter so you don't have to go pee?"

I mean, I prefer paper handkerchiefs so I can throw them away after use, rather than carrying around a piece of cloth that gets all messy.

Though that first reaction would also be true of a tampon. You're inserting something that collects liquid in both cases: just one absorbs it and the other doesn't.

Indeed, with the cup, the liquid is retained in the cup. With the tampon, it's absorbed and still touching organic matter (which is why they need to be changed more often).

From what I've read about menstrual cups (which is strange because I also don't have a vagina...) they are not usable with some contraceptive implants.

Due to the suction they can cause problems with IUD.

They're cost effective and environmentally friendly, however dropping one on the floor of a public restroom is quite the faux pas.

This gave me a truly awful, slow-motion, Quentin Tarantino mental replay.

Thank you for sharing...

Sharing is caring! <3

the wiki says they are more environmentally friendly? aren't tampons cotton and biodegrade quite easily.

Buying one of something will be more environmentally friendly than buying 100 of something most of the time.

More to the point, throwing away one of something every year or ten is more environmentally friendly than throwing away seven of something every month. Provided the one thing you're throwing away isn't horrifically environmentally destructive.

silicone has "strong resistance to action of biological factors"...at least according to http://www.wiley-vch.de/books/biopoly/pdf_v09/vol09_15.pdf

tampons are designed to break up, on the other hand, so the jury may still be out on this one?

The tampons still have to be manufactured, individually wrapped and packaged, and delivered to the customer. Let’s say a single menstrual cup lasts five years and a woman has periods for 40 years. That’s 8 menstrual cups and a HUGE heap of tampons. I’d vote for the cup.

zoul makes my point better than I did... the distribution and packaging costs and effects are definitely important. I also have a bit of unfounded reservation about assuming something that's touted as having been designed to be biodegradable actually is completely and totally so... it just does not seem likely to me.

>can buy a menstrual cup every year or two

What? They last way longer than that. The companies making them recommend buying a new one every 10 years.

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