Welcome to the second to last Menstrual Monday of the year and the first official day of winter!  Enjoy this week’s dose of menstruation facts, art, news, and more!

• From Halle Tecco at the Huffington Post, an article about menstrual products in Africa entitled “When Menstruation Means Inequality”

• We found this intro to menstrual cup use through MyFrugalTips on Twitter: Using a menstrual cup instead of tampons: be eco-friendly while saving money

• Did you know that a recent female climber of Mt. Everest brought the DivaCup with her to prevent having to bury or carry out disposables products?  Cool!  We learned this neat fact from Carlin Ross’ interview with the women behind the DivaCup.

• The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research has put out a call for creative works!  They’re looking for poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and menstrual memoirs    for a special issue of their interdisciplinary journal, slated for publication next fall.

• Check out this fascinating article about menstruation in ancient civilizations, snake goddesses, and the “Isis knot” — an early form of tampons used by women suffering from irregular menstruation and to prevent miscarriages!

• Strange but true: you can now (for quite a price!) harvest your own stem cells from your menstrual blood to save for “the future [when] these cells may be the basis of medical treatments for threatening diseases, personalized cosmeceuticals and regenerative medical procedures.”  The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research has more info — plus a funny video courtesy of In Living Color.

• An Ad a Day shares amusing advertisements for “sanitary napkins” as part of its Vintage Friday series.  Aren’t you glad we don’t have to figure out those belts anymore?

• Artist Amy E Fraser has a series of abstract paintings based on the “inner turmoil of the uterus.”  Strange, beautiful, and interesting!

Hello!  We are back with your guide to recent menstrual news, art, and more!

• The British blog PositiveLife presents us with a thoughtful article on the negative taboo that surrounds menstruation, what we can do about it and how to think positively.
• GeekFeminism geeks out about menstruation in this blog post.  In the comments section, the author includes this link which has some fascinating photos of human ovulation caught on camera during a surgery.
• Factoidz and GreenLiving101 encourage you to go green and save green with the menstrual cup in this article.
• Period Positivity website My Moon Days presents the idea of a period flag and why it’s useful.
• YouTuber Glozell gives us an awesome video about her thoughts upon starting use of the Diva Cup.

GladRags Guerrilla Natalie G. recently sent us this awesome email about what she’s doing to spread the word about reusable products:

I have already submitted a rave review talking about how GladRags changed my entire perspective on my period when I bought a starter kit a year ago. I would now like to tell people how stepping outside your comfort zone can really pay off. I bought my friend a set of 3 mismatched pads and a carry bag when they were on sale a while back (keep up the awesome sales that come so frequently!). I was nervous because we’d only talked a couple times about reusable menstrual products, but the apprehension was totally unfounded. She loved them so much she’s told any woman that will listen and has become a member of the GladRags Guerrillas like myself. She already has another friend converted to GladRags and is planning on posting signs/information in the bathroom at her work (I’m doing the same at school). Long story short, step outside your comfort zone and tell a friend because the impact can become exponential in such a short time!

-Natalie G.

Thanks, Natalie!  Keep up the great work!  Would you like to learn more about how to help other women make the best choice for the environment and their bodies?  Join the GladRags Guerillas Team and get a free info set with the tools you need to help spread the word!

Ready to take a page from Natalie’s book and convert your friends?  Now is the perfect time to give the gift of GladRags!  With a variety of GladRags pad and cup kits on sale and new reusable Gift Bags at a special introductory price, what are you waiting for?

December Monthly Friend: Dionne M. Frey

Name: Dionne M. Frey
Age: 36
Hometown: Denver, CO
Current location: Portland, OR
Occupation: Personal Assistant and Student Midwife

Interests: Midwifery, women’s health, reading, knitting, nature walks, herbs, alternative medicine and health.
Dreams: My dream is to be a midwife and help babies enter the world peacefully by empowering  women to choose how and where they give birth.  I want to change the world one birth at a time.

How long have you used reusable menstrual products?: I’ve used reusable menstrual products for 9 years and I love them!
Reason for making the switch to reusables: I was tired of ugly, itchy disposable pads and I felt disgusted when I thought of all the disposable products that I would use in a lifetime of menstruation piled up in a landfill.  I also thought that breathable menstrual products like GladRags would help stop me from having so many yeast infections and they really did help.  I really wish I had thought to search for reusable products sooner, not only because of the landfill thing, but because they are so much more comfortable and beautiful than disposable pads.

Funny anecdotes, deep thoughts, or anything else you’d like to share:  When I was a little girl my grandma told me that she got her period when she was 10 years old and that she and her sisters used to use old rags to catch their menstrual flow that they would wash and use again.  I thought it was kind of gross,  not because they washed them and used them over and over, but because they used scraps of old things that used to be used for something else.  I guess I always thought that  there should be something especially for menstruation. As soon as I turned 10, I thought, “OK, I’m old enough to get my period now!” and I was very excited, checking often and sometimes feeling disappointed when there was no red spot in my panties.  It didn’t come until I was 12, in gym class, and I had to go to the nurse’s office to get a pad. I felt so bummed out when I put on my first disposable pad thinking, “This is what I was so excited about?” The pad was thick and scratchy and I didn’t feel womanly wearing it at all.  The first time I put on a GladRag at the age of 27, I wished I could turn back time and put on a GladRag on that first day of my period and celebrate my menarche.  I also wished that my grandma was still alive to see that there really was something special to use just for menstruation, and it was not an ugly, itchy, disposable pad that had been created to clean it up, freshen it up or hide it from the world, but to be comfortable and help women feel good about their bodies.