For those of you who don't know what reusable menstrual products are, I will give a short description.
Rumps can be everything from cloth pads to menstrual cups to cloth tampons, sea sponges etc.
Personally, I only use cloth pads and menstrual cups. I don't like the idea of cloth tampons, sea sponges and the like for there is still a small risk contracting TSS in using them.
(For a video on TSS and it's symptoms and dangers, I linked one down below. Check it out, it's really informative!)
Now I will tell you about how I discovered Rumps.
If you can't handle what is possibly too much personal information, I advice you not to read any further!
My adventure with rumps, or more specifically with cloth pads, started a few years ago.
I really got fed up with disposable pads after two times I had been really ill, once with sinusitis and once with bronchitis. I really hate to take antibiotics, but those 2 times, I really had to since my sinuses and lungs are quite sensitive. Due to the antibiotics I did not feel well at all, I had stomach ache, got constipated and even my labia dried out. At first, I did not know what happened to me. How could my labia have dried out? I was really worried since I hate to see a gynecologist. They always hurt me really bad doing the internal exam they do. My uterus still hurts at least 3 days afterwards. It's worse than having my period! So, not knowing what to do, I read the folder that came with my antibiotics, and luckily there I found my answer! It said that the antibiotics could dry out your skin. I was really relieved.
Now I hear you wondering what this has to do with Rumps? Well, both times I was sick, I also had my period. I had never liked disposable pads to begin with. They are extremely uncomfortable, they move around, they get stuck to your pubic hair, they make you feel sweaty and wet, they tear apart the gusset of your underwear, they constantly give you the feeling you've leaked and above all, they stink terribly. I could not stand the smell of them and always felt unhygienic even after I just put one on after I showered.
When I then was so ill, I started to dislike them even more. Apart from all the other things I already did not like about them, this time, they also gave me a rash and made me feel itchy the whole time, which caused my already dried out labia to be sore and really hurting constantly. I could not take it anymore and decided that enough was enough. Since I was ill, I could stay home so I started using 'een washandje' (a kind of washcloth you put your hand in, picture will be down below if you should not know what 'een washandje' is) instead of disposable pads. The immediate relief in doing so made me determined to, once I was feeling better, look for and hopefully find a cloth alternative to disposable pads. I did and that is how I discovered cloth pads.
Picture of 'een washandje':
Since then, I've been using cloth pads and I absolutely could not've been happier about them. The only thing is that I wish I had discovered them sooner : )
Another reason why I prefer Rumps over disposable menstrual products, is my concern for the environment. There are a lot of women of menstruating age on our planet. Quite a lot of them are using disposables when on their periods. The problem is that all these disposable menstrual products are indeed, disposable. They get thrown away after use and the sad part is that nearly none of them are made out of recyclable materials. Once used, they're nothing more than just waste. If you take that into account, that's a whole lot of waste going into our landfills. It takes approximately 450 years before a disposable menstrual product starts to break down when dumped into a landfill. That way
they will add to climate changes and global warmth through carbon coming from the landfill going into the air and they will pollute our waterways by landfill water seeping into the ground, for a very, very long time to come. The fact that they need a lot of water to be produced and the chemicals that are used in their production also polluting drinking water does not help either. In sum, as well the production of disposables as their being disposable, will cause considerable damage to our present environment, but it also affects every living and breathing creature, every plant and every future generation of human beings on this planet too.
A few visual reminders why we don't want any more waste going to landfills (coming soon):
Video about the symptoms and dangers of Toxic Shock Syndrome, or TSS is short: