Lunapads Blog

Name: Alice

Age: 21

How did you hear about reusable menstrual products?
I saw them in store and I was curious.

Please describe your monthly needs:
My period almost always comes at night.  It is an average flow and I experience continuous cramping for the first three days.

If you are currently using disposable products, which ones do you use, and for what needs?
Regular pads and Pantyliners.  I used to use tampons but I found them uncomfortable and itchy.

If you are currently using reusable products, which ones do you use, and for what needs?
No, but I’m dying to try!

Why do you want to switch to reusable menstrual products?
I want to lessen my impact on earth. I also get rashes from that synthetic material.  I don’t know, it’s like plastic or something, and the sticky things rub my skin.  It’s just not a comfortable time of the month.  I am very active and with that stuff rubbing my skin I would rather not move. Luna pads sound soft and wearable; maybe I won’t even notice them.

Anything else you would like to share about yourself?
I do yoga and frequently exercise.

Based on your own experience, what message do you have for other women who might be thinking about reusable menstrual products?
Think about your vagina!

Our recommendations for this active, young woman who has had enough with disposables!

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As regular readers will be aware, over the past decade Lunapads has been developing the Pads4Girls program to bring reusable feminine hygiene supply kits to thousands of girls and women in need in over 15 countries. Pads4Girls seeks to address an often-overlooked problem that hundreds of millions of girls and women in developing nations face: missing school or work for several days every month because they lack adequate menstrual hygiene supplies. You can learn more about the issue and its impact on our site here, and in the Pads4Girls section of our blog.

Trying to determine how to make a bigger impact with Pads4Girls from a distance only goes so far, and we feel called to learn more and go deeper. In January 2012 Suzanne and I will be traveling to Uganda with Shanti Uganda, a Vancouver-based charity that improves infant and maternal health, provides safe women-centered care and supports the well-being of birthing mothers and women living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

We are appealing to the Lunapads community to raise funds to enroll 300 teenage girls in Shanti Uganda’s At Risk Girls Program, a health and wellness program focused on inspiring futures for girls and teen mothers in Kasana Town Uganda. As part of the workshop, each girl will receive AFRIpads (Ugandan-made cloth pads based on Lunapads, see below for more information about them) and a health education manual.

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Hi everybody, Lisa here! Our most recent guest post from Samson (read here)  has motivated me to share some of my own thoughts and an explanation / followup to the note on gender that I added to our website recently.

For those who haven’t seen it yet, here’s the note:

Lunapads users and community members are cisgender, transgender, genderqueer and transsexual individuals who span the gender spectrum. Due to the nature of our products, cisgender women comprise the majority of our customer base. However, we are committed to creating an inclusive and welcoming space for all those seeking eco friendly solutions to their everyday and monthly needs.

Being mindful of gender essentialist & exclusionary comments made about periods and bodies – and the real & lasting impact those words and assumptions have  – is important to me, both in and outside of my work here at Lunapads.  Avoiding framing conversations in ways that make others feel unrecognized or overlooked matters to me, to my community, to my family, and to many of our customers. I care about what we say and how we say it because I believe that exclusion in language equals exclusion in practice.

In understanding that many individual’s realities are far more complex than traditional gender constructs would have us believe, I think we can find new, meaningful ways to relate to and support each other — strengthening our communities and expanding the narrow confines of who’s given access to improved health, comfort and support in relation to their own menstrual cycles and bodies.

My hope is that we can provide space within the Lunapads community for those who menstruate and feel unrepresented or overlooked in conversations about menstruation. While most women menstruate at some point in their lives, the ways in which those cycles are experienced varies so widely depending on a number of  factors.  Furthermore, having a period is not something exclusive to those who are women — nor do all women menstruate or share the same feelings about their bodies, fertility, sexuality, and so on.

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Have your kids brought information packets about periods home after a health education session at their school? What product samples were they given? Did they receive information about alternatives? What can we do to help you spread the LunaRevolution? Answer any of these questions to be eligible to win 1 Teen Booklet and Lunapads Pantyliner!

As many of you know I have 3 daughters. 2 have graduated from High School and one is in Grade 9. Together they have experienced a number of health education sessions offered through the public school health care programs. They have brought home a variety of information packages. Some very elaborate, some with next to nothing (much to my youngest’s dismay). But one thing was consistent every time; there was never mention of washable alternatives and it became a pet peeve of mine. A fair representation of what is available seemed to me to be something that should be happening but wasn’t.

One day I decided to take action and see what it would take to get washable alternative information into the school’s puberty education. To my surprise, it was pretty easy! All you need to do is contact your local health unit or school nurse and offer them this opportunity!

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What is your trusted go-to source for information about sexual health or environmentally friendly and body safe sex toys?
Let us know in a comment below, and you could win a bottle of Hathor Pure Lubricant! You can respond anonymously if you prefer, just be sure to fill out the email box (only visible to us / not shared publicly) so we can contact you if you win. Thanks everyone, and good luck!

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BunchaFarmers Stain Remover Giveaway
Check out Lunapads-fan Melissa (aka TarotLadyLissa on YouTube)’s fantastic video review of BunchaFarmers Stain Stick below! Tell us about your typical cloth pad washing routine and you could win a BunchaFarmers Stain Stick to try out for yourself, too.  We’ll announce a winner at the end of the week. Good luck!

Related Video:
How to Wash Lunapads Cloth Menstrual Pads – Simple and easy methods to clean your washable cloth menstrual pads. Laundry tips including soaking, stain removal and storage solutions. Lunapads are easier to wash and care for than you think!

Other Reviews:

Awesome! Review by Adica
I’m going to have to join the bandwagon and sing the praises of this little stain remover. I just used it on some soiled pads and underwear, and it worked wonderfully to take the blood right out, in some cases stains came out even before washing. I even used it on some other random stains on my regular laundry, and it worked great on those, too. I had a bunch of old white shirts that had some yellow staining on the underarms that I’ve tried remove many times before, and this removed the stains in one go.

Awesome product! Review by Lindsay
I LOVE this product! My kids and I all have sensitive skin and a friend of mine recommended this cause other stain removers irritated! This takes out every stain that I have tried it on so far and it doesn’t bug our skin! I’m passing it on to my sister who has 2 small kids and a few other friends of mine!

Fabulous! Review by Lyndsay Chae
This is the BEST stain remover EV-AR! It took my stains out of my pads, and liners and undies! AND, it removes gross kid stains too! This is so multipurpose in the laundry room! It even helps on grease stains.

This stain remover is awesome! Review by China
This stain remover works great! It got the blood out of my pads very easily, and even got food stains out of my clothes too! Plus, the eucalyptus scent smells great.

Best Stain Remover Review by Carly
I purchased the stain remover for my Luna Pads and was absolutely amazed at how effective it is, so much so that I have even tried it on my kids clothing when they have stains from grass, spaghetti sauce, and other things. It has successfully removed everything I have tried it on and is far superior to the chemical based stain removers on the market. It has a wonderful scent and is now a standard in my laundry room.

Really works! Review by Kathleen
Even after reading the good reviews, I’m amazed at how well this works! I thought maybe it would just get most of the blood out, or make the stain look really light, but I actually can’t even see where the blood was on my liners. It’s kind of shocking!

So Good! Review by Alexandra
This totally exceeds my expectations for cleaning my Luna Pads! I just hand wash, use this soap and warm water, they come out looking as clean as the day I bought them. Works really well for panties that get stained too.

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With Madeleine and Suzanne’s trip to Portland this week for the World Domination Summit, travel and adventure are naturally on our minds. We have been meaning to write an updated post about the whats, hows and benefits of traveling with our products (see previous posts here and here), and this seems like a great opportunity to do just that.

Who wants to waste valuable luggage space on boxes of disposable pads and tampons, or risk running out where supplies may not be available? Read on for our top tips for easy, waste-free ways to manage your period while traveling, with bonus video  from Suzanne about how to clean your DivaCup while you’re on the road.

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We often get asked what the difference is between The DivaCup and tampons. As is the case with disposable pads and Lunapads, it really is a bit of an apples and oranges situation, however this video answers some important questions about differences in size and respective amounts of waste generated.

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Name: Avigayil

What is your age? 24

How did you hear about reusable menstrual products?

Lunapads.

Please describe your monthly needs:

Unpredictable. Usually my period starts early, despite being on birth control, and it starts with shedding which is so annoying. That can go on for 2 days. Other times it just starts heavy for 2 days, then light for the rest. I have severe cramps the first 3 days, and I toss and turn all night.. sleep, whats that?

If you are currently using disposable products, which ones do you use, and for what needs?

I currently only use disposable products for swimming. I really hate staying out of the pool when I have my period, and tampons just work for that. However, I haven’t done that for 4 months now. . . I just hate the waste and worry about what they do to my body!

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I am really excited about this video, and hope that it will be the first of several about how women connect with their fertility cycles on a spiritual level.

Back when I first started making Lunapads, I was intrigued by Goddess spirituality and would often participate in women’s rituals around Vancouver in the company of my Goddess-loving BFF, Signy Wilson. They were very moving and beautiful and I fondly remember the power and magic of being in community with other women in this unique way. What has stayed with me from those experiences is a profound sense of Sisterhood (chief among Lunapads’ core values) as well as a deep awareness of my connection to Nature’s other cyclical mysteries via my menstrual cycle.

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