I want to preface this post by saying that I do not think the subject of feminine health and hygiene should or needs to be embarrassing or awkward. That being said, I realize that it is for some people for varying reasons. However, there is important information regarding feminine health/hygiene and education should not be avoided because of embarrassment. Women’s health is very important and awareness cannot be raised in an environment of shame. With that in mind I would like to encourage both men and women alike to read this post and/or find other ways of learning more about this subject matter.

Since puberty I have dreaded anything that has to do with my reproductive organs. I didn’t want to learn anything about the female body. Since the age of 12 when I first got my period I have hated it. There were a lot of reasons; the main one being that I quickly discovered that it was always going to be a significant source of problems for me. My way of dealing with this fact was to ignore it. I wouldn’t go to the doctor, I wouldn’t talk about it, I wouldn’t learn the correct terms that relate to this subject matter, I even refused to study the female body in my AP Anatomy/Physiology class. I still get really nervous about whether I am using the term “menstruation” correctly (To be totally honest I just looked it up again to make sure.). This has become a major problem in my life and a difficult one for me to fix mainly because it is an enigma. It is not like me to run away from a problem or pretend like it is not there. Living in reality is very important to me, even when it is difficult to do so.

However, yesterday at the grocery store I made a very significant change. I made a change in my usual feminine hygiene purchase. It began as an accident when the term “organic cotton” caught my eye. I was already holding my regular products when I saw natracare’s chlorine free, perfume free, plastic free, biodegradable, organic tampons, pads, and panty liners. Years ago I heard about the health problems caused by chlorine bleaching in the production of tampons, pads, and panty liners (most mainstream brands do this), but chose to ignore it.

Dioxin, among other toxins, is a by-product of chlorine bleaches (organochlorines); making even its production harmful to the environment. Dioxin is a carcinogen (cancer causing substance) that builds up over time in the environment, animals, and human beings (As a result of the food chain we receive dioxins not only from what we are immediately exposed to, but also the dioxins from that which we eat.). The more exposure you have to dioxins, the more you are going to accumulate this toxin in your body over your lifetime.

Dioxins, furans and PCB’s, which are generally referred to as dioxin-like compounds, are highly toxic organochlorines. These compounds are extremely fat seeking. There are some natural organochlorines in the atmosphere, but considerably greater amounts of artificially produced ones. Minute traces of dioxins may have existed before industrialization, but a huge rise occurred in the late 1940’s along with the expansion of organochlorine manufacture, which started at this time, and the extensive use of pesticides in agriculture worldwide.

The production of dioxins in the manufacture of paper pulp products such as tampons and sanitary pads, are not only harmful to the environment, but also unnecessarily expose women to low levels of dioxins every time they use these products. Dioxin settles in the fat cells of our bodies and stay there for the rest of our lives, building up cumulatively over time from birth, so increased exposure means increased risk.

The use of organochlorines and the resulting dioxins is not limited to feminine hygiene products, but can also found in cleaning products/sanitizers, cosmetics, pesticides, and chlorine bleached pulp and paper products (paper towels, toilet paper, paper, etc.) just to name a few. Natracare has a great Health and Environment section with a lot of important information if you are interested in learning more. Since I am new to this myself I don’t have a lot of resources to pass on to you at this point. However, if you do have any helpful information to pass along I would love it if you would do so in the comment section.

Today, I celebrate being a woman and all complexities that come with this body of mine.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 10:58 am and is filed under Environment, General, Organic, Products, making changes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.