Women are discovering the benefits of menstrual cup
In 2009, when Avani Mathur* was on her way to Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal, for the biennial Boom Festival, she got her period. Now at no rate was this an extraordinary occurrence, except the timing was rather inconvenient for the 33-year-old lawyer — Boom is one of Europe’s most popular counterculture festivals which espouses a self-sustainable culture of collecting one’s own waste and recycling. “I was camping at the festival and while the grounds offered organic toilets, they were absolutely filthy
Besides, I didn’t want to be the odd one out using disposable tampons and sanitary pads and there were no places really to dispose of such things, the bathrooms were communal,” says Mathur. She stepped into a departmental store to look for a solution and found the menstrual cup. “I bought the Mooncup. It’s a bit rubbery, folds and slips in easily. It was washable and reusable and I would probably use it again, though it’s pretty hard to find a nice one in India,” she says.
Not anymore. At least three Indian companies manufacture and sell menstrual cups today and growing awareness about the product is leading several women to make the switch. A menstrual cup is shaped like a bell and is usually made of medical grade silicone. It is flexible and is worn inside the vagina to catch menstrual blood. Once full, it can be emptied into the toilet or sink, washed and re-inserted.
The cup does not pose a hindrance to activities such as swimming and yoga, but you should avoid inverted poses all the same. “I mainly work from home, but I do spend a lot of time outside and until recently, travelled a fair amount. Before, I used disposable pads and hated the rash and irritation they caused me, not to mention the hassle of disposing of them wherever I went,” says Sunayana Roy, 33, writer and theatreperson. The Bangalore resident first heard about menstrual cups from a friend in an email group and, in late 2009, she ordered the Keeper online. Available in America since 1987, the Keeper is arguably the world’s first commercially viable menstrual cup. “It is made of latex and I chose it because it seemed a better choice at the time than silicone. Insertion and removal were not huge problems but it took me some time to achieve a good seal and avoid leaks,” she says.
A few months after Roy began using the Keeper, Ashish Malani’s MediAceso Healthcare Pvt Ltd launched the Shecup in January 2010. “At the time, there were only six-seven global brands and we were not only the first in India but in Asia as well,” says Malani, a chartered accountant in Mumbai. He started the company with his brother Manish, and a handful of young professionals, who volunteer time to conduct menstrual health management awareness programmes in rural and urban educational institutes, women’s groups, housing societies and even at offices of the Taj group, Jet Airways, and Indigo Airlines. “Since we have no full-time employees, we are able to keep the cost low. A Shecup sells for Rs 695 along with an instruction booklet, wipes and a pouch,” he says.
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