Menses Pot?

    I happened to be watching an episode of Seth MacFarlane's American Dad where Hayley is seen throwing what she calls a "menses pot".  As an experienced Potter, Anthropology student and menstruating female, I had never heard of such a thing. Curiosity piqued!

    I looked around online and found a lot of people suggesting that it was made up for the show. Not true. It's a real thing. Before the disposables of today, menses pots were used to hold and clean sea sponges and cloths used to catch menstrual bleeding. The lidded ceramic pot would be filled with hot water and the materials allowed to soak overnight, to be wrung out and laundered as normal the next day. Pretty interesting....
    And that lead to this...Why you should switch to reusable menstrual products!

     Shouldn't I? I'm not much of a treehugger but these hippies are giving some pretty compelling reasons.

   Actually, a few years ago I started using the menstrual cup. There are a lot of great reasons to use a menstrual cup: no smell (from the cup or you), you can have sex while wearing it, reusable or disposable available, less waste, more comfortable than anything else, designed by a woman (go girls!), and cheaper. However, they are not perfect. They do leak sometimes if you don't get them in just right. So I also wear pads or liners to catch leaks. Between the 2, I use way less disposable products and have been pretty comfortable with it. But with a menses pot and reusable cotton pads, aka moonpads, I could be that much more environmentally/cost conscious. Apparently I can even support artisans by purchasing handmade pads on etsy! (These look really comfy.) On top of it, many articles claim the waste water from soaking is good fertilizer for my plants...we will have to see about this.

   At a time when waste plastics are peaking as an environmental issue now is a good time to consider the switch to a sustainable product for managing your menses. Support art, the environment, save money, and improve your health: Win, win, win, win!