Lets face it, the general sanitation of a hiker isn't great. We operate to efficiency and convenience above all. From the overpriced travel soaps in mega heavy bottles to sanitary products that just don't cut it, I travelled the length of New Zealand battling with the laws of sanitation and having a period in the wild.
Before I went away, it was the problem that bothered me most; what would I do if I had a period? It was my first long hike so I hadn't any friends to ask, and it was hardly the question I wanted to ask on a Facebook page. I did the research I could in private, spoke to my doctor about possible solutions and watched some rather precarious YouTube videos before making my first and last purchase of a menstrual cup.
The big rule for anyone in the outdoors is to carry out what you carry in so the idea was to reduce weight, minimise rubbish, and make my experience as pleasant as it could possible be. The menstrual cup is essentially, as you'd assume, a cup that fits up inside and catches any blood throughout the day. It is removed, emptied, and reinserted with zero rubbish or extra weight so its a win, win.
I had a trial run before committing fully. I sat on the toilet with the cup in one hand and the instruction manual in the other. Okay, I thought, I do not like the word 'suction.'
I proceeded to pinch the sides together, in the hope the word was not as literal as it was technical, and inserted the cup. I stood up. I bent my knees, and lunged as though taking a big step over a rock or something of that nature. I squatted. I tensed my pelvic floor muscles as best I knew how. The cup was still there. It hadn't moved or fallen out. Success. I pinched the cup again as instructed to 'break the suction' and pulled. It certainly wasn't the most comfortable of exercises but it would be better with practice, so I packed the cup in my bag.
A month into my trip, I was coopied between two trees when I realised I was going to have to use the cup for the first time while hiking. It wasn't so much putting it in that made me nervous, but rather, the taking it out when it was full. How would I clean it with no running water? How would I clean my hands!?
Lucky for me, I came across a public toilet that same afternoon. Luke waited outside with two of our friends while I tried my very best to be quick. 'Breaking the suction' isn't the easiest of tasks while hovering over a public toilet with no seat. I held it between my fingers, pulled and twisted round to tip the contents into the loo. I seem to remember making it just before catching my foot in the leg of my shorts and saving myself with both hands on the toilet basin as I heard Luke outside make a crude joke about me being a long time in the bathroom. I stood back up, scrubbed my hands, and stared at the cup sitting upside down in the corner on the bathroom on top the little square drain. I eventually emerged, my friends with their bags ready to go on their backs, and with a mound of folded tissue balanced in my knickers, I made my way hastily to the first pharmacy I could find and bought a large pack of sanitary towels - I'll carry the bloody rubbish!
After that, my pill kicked in. I didn't have another period for the whole time I was away which was a miracle if you don't mind submerging your bodies natural hormones with artificial ones for some time. It saved me a lot of misery and while my friends found the cup worked for them, I would always stick with my normal products in the future, or find a smaller cup perhaps. I carried a dark rubbish bag with me and stuffed it in the back pocket of my bag out of the way with some hand sanitiser close by. There's no lying, it's not a pleasant thing, but its doable, and if I know anything, we girls will get over it.
No comments:
Post a Comment