Toss-Up Tuesday: The DivaCup

Howdy and happy Toss-Up Tuesday to you all!

Tuesday's posts will vary from week to week depending on the season, the weather, my mood, or whatever else moves me at the time! Be prepared for posts about my various fandoms, my love for all things Emily Post, my cat, and who knows what else.

I'm not holding back either which is pretty well evidenced by today's topic: periods!

Ok, not periods so much as a product for dealing with them, but you get the idea. If you're not in the mood to hear about periody stuff, then you probably want to bug out now.

That said, here goes!

It was around ten years ago that I first heard about the DivaCup.

At the time, I was a college freshman and had traveled with a couple schoolmates to join some veg kids at CNU for a vegan potluck. That night is easily one of my fondest memories from college, in no small part because of the food. It was the first time since going veg that I had been able to eat everything in front of me. There were so many different kinds of food—and I could eat it all! So I did, and it was delicious.

Seriously. I ate some pumpkin bread there that was so good I have literally spent the past decade trying to recreate it. It was life-changing . . . but I digress.

Somehow, the conversation turned to the DivaCup. (Suddenly, I’m regretting not having made a mental note of the guys’ faces during this discussion.)

One of the hostesses used it and was a big fan. I was TOTALLY fascinated by the concept: the DivaCup is a reusable, a soft silicone cup that you wear inside your vagina to collect menstrual fluid. I found this especially interesting since I had done my senior science project the year before on contaminants in tampons. (No joke. But that's a story for another time.)

Ultimately, the DivaCup was pricey for my broke college kid budget and I was a little nervous about the DivaCup not working or me not being able to use it properly/comfortably so I put it off. I mostly forgot about it, once in a while remembering oh, yeah, there’s this other thing, when I was buying tampons or something. Mostly, though, it slipped my mind.

Then, within the past couple years or so, I started seeing articles popping up about the DivaCup and other alternatives to traditional pads and tampons. My friends were sharing them and, since they’re all pretty progressive ladies, I figured at least some must have been using them, too. (Translation: I'm not alone! Always a good feeling.)

So, the other day when I saw a DivaCup on sale at Whole Foods, I figured why the hell not.

The timing was perfect because, even aside from the sale, it just so happened that I was due to re-stock my tampon supply. I crunched the numbers in my head:

approx $7/month for tampons = $84/year

1 DivaCup at $33, lasts approx 12 months = $33/year

plus environmental benefit of less waste with DivaCup

Saving $50 and doing the environment a favor? Easy decision.

I grabbed the DivaCup and, knowing how dangerous it is for me to be in Whole Foods once I go Off-List, beelined to the register. Now, I am the proud owner of my very own, brand new DivaCup! *cheers*

Do you use a DivaCup or other alternative to traditional pads or tampons? What’s your favorite? Share your stories in the comments!

Click here to visit DivaCup’s website for more information.