Girls Only

What did one tampon say to the other? Nothing. They were both stuck up bitches.

Menstrual Supplies  Sanitary pads, panty liners and tampons are normally made with all kinds of synthetic materials, pesticide-grown, bleached cotton and perfumes that can make chemically-sensitive lady parts react badly. There was a news alert many years ago about feminine hygiene product manufacturers adding arsenic to tampons so women would bleed more, and therefore, buy more. I have no idea if this is one of those urban myths, but when it comes to the money-making machine, anything is possible.

I've always believed the theory if it's trying to get out of your body, you shouldn't be plugging it up and keeping it inside. It would be like vomiting and holding it in your mouth for a few hours. I imagine the old, rotting blood festering the walls of my vagina and seeping into my blood stream. I stopped using tampons years ago after reading about the arsenic.

Long, long ago in a galaxy far away women used menstrual rags, or strips of fabric,  which is where the saying "on the rag" started. Fascinating, until you are faced with the reality that you'd have to wash these soiled rags daily. YUCK. Hand wash even, because I doubt if you'd want to put all that mess in a washing machine. I confess, I was intrigued and gave it a trial run because 1) I wanted to control what was used near my body, 2) I liked the idea of using something recyclable rather than wasteful filling up our landfills, and last but not least, 3) at the time I was disabled, unemployed and trying to think of creative money-saving ideas. Sanitary pads are expensive when you are thinking you'd rather be able to afford rent. The non-toxic kind are even more expensive. Even with my financial woes, I didn't last a day. Too gross for me.

I couldn't use the regular, chemically-made sanitary pads. When I first became hypersensitive, I started having problems in the nether regions (see below) and I wondered why my lungs hurt and my sinuses were congested during my periods. I questioned the safety of cheap, conventional sanitary pads. They were barely scented, but scented nevertheless.  I eventually forked out money for the organic cotton, latex-free, plastic-free, chlorine-free and fragrance-free sanitary pads by Natracare. They are found at health food stores and some grocery stores.

The latest thing is the Diva Cup. Bloggers are raving about it. According to the instructions, it's a little cup that comes in two different sizes (selection depends on your age and childbirth history), you stick it up there, it catches all the menstrual blood, every ten hours or so you remove it, empty it and wash it out, re-insert. Once a month you give it a good washing with soap and hot water and store it in a breathable cloth pouch until next month. I like that it is environmentally friendly. I'm not sure about putting silicone up in my lady parts, but I guess it's safer than plastic. It costs between $24.00 and $34.00 depending on where you buy it. If anyone has tried this, please leave a comment.

Douches  Douching shouldn't be done by anyone unless prescribed by a doctor and even then, who wants to trust doctors who have sold their souls to the drug and chemical companies? With chemical ingredients such as sodium chloride, citric acid, sodium benzoate, disodium EDTA, octoxynol-9, and fragrance, is it any wonder douching would screw up our natural vaginal ecosystems and make us more susceptible to pelvic inflammation and yeast infections? The package claims it will make you feel fresh and clean. I want to know who brainwashed society into believing that fresh and clean is far better than healthy and safe?

Feminine Hygiene Sprays  Ah, yes, another product designed to make us feel more self-conscious about the way our natural human bodies smell. Ingredients include: glycerides, polyoxyethylene, benzalkonium chloride, chlorhexidine, isopropyl myristate and perfume causing bladder infections, burning, itching, swelling, boils, and blood in the urine. These sprays are also linked to cervical cancer. Anything with -ene on the end causes cancer and anything with chlor- is chlorine.

Contraceptive Sponges These are little sponges soaked with spermicide used as temporary forms of birth control. The spermicides used are benzalkonium chloride, sodium cholate or nonoxyl-9, the latter being problematic for many women. One horrible experience was enough to inflict psychological damage to last a lifetime. Unbeknownst to me due to lack of pain, this nonoxyl-9 inflamed the walls of my vagina so severely I woke up in the middle of the night bleeding profusely. When I say profusely I think I went through a whole box of sanitary pads in an hour. It was all I could do not to panic and to hold on until morning when I could rush myself to the free clinic at my university. The doctor told me I had deep lacerations as my vagina walls had split open. I have scars to prove it - physically and mentally. Contraceptive sponges in general make one more susceptible to yeast infections, urinary tract infections or toxic shock syndrome, and, well, vaginal disintegration.

Birth Control Pills  Yeah, they are drugs, and yeah, lots of women have bad reactions that may or may not go away once the dosages are adjusted, and yeah, they make one more susceptible to cancer, but if you don't want to be pregnant non-stop, this is the best way to prevent that. Oh, except abstinence.

Other Nether Region Issues

I like the term "nether regions". It sounds like hell which is an accurate description of some of my experiences. Let me preface this story with I have rarely had yeast infections in my life, maybe two at the most. I've never had urinary infections,  bacterial infections or sexually transmitted diseases.


When I first became chemically sensitive I started getting symptoms similar to a yeast or bacterial infection: burning like the fires of hell in the nether regions. BURNING! See why I like the hellish term, nether regions? I did all my home remedies and nothing helped. I went to three different doctors who did all kinds of tests and they all told me I was fine. Nothing was wrong. Hello? Except I was burning like the fires of hell. One doctor told me I had the "cleanest" vagina he'd ever seen. Why, thank you! But he still had no idea what was wrong with me nor what to do about it.  One prescribed cortisone cream which made it worse. Another said Hmmm...maybe it's some kind of infection that didn't show up on the tests and she gave me antibiotics for fun. The antibiotics made it go away but then as soon as the prescription ended, it all came back and worse. So I figured out really fast doctors were pretty useless, as usual, and I started reading and doing experiments.


I read about VULVITIS. Ugly word, I know. This is an inflammation of the vulva caused by perfumes, soaps, bubble baths, shampoos or any kind of chemical that might have access to the lady parts. Well, that makes sense! This was what initially inspired me stop using all soaps and shampoos and I never went back. It didn't help. With each passing day, the burning got worse. I was in tears most of the time, wondering how I could have ever taken for granted a non-burning vagina. The good old days.


I switched from conventional sanitary pads to organic, non-toxic ones and my lungs and sinuses cleared. I was hoping this was an easy answer to the burning, too. Nope, but it did force me to rethink the menstrual supplies I was buying.

Then by chance I came across an article about detoxification treatments throwing off your pH balance. As your body cleans and re-balances itself, it will temporarily become more alkaline. I was doing all kinds of dietary detoxification programs trying to ease the chemical sensitivity. The author's example of a symptom was those little cold sore like blisters in your mouth. This would indicate a pH imbalance. Hmmmm...I was getting those. So I surmised if it's a pH imbalance, could my vaginal fluid be too alkaline?


How would I make my system less alkaline?  First, I began drinking gallons of unsweetened cranberry juice. Not pleasant and it did nothing to cool the fires of hell. The whole time I'm wondering if my body is alkaline, they why am I not getting bladder infections or urinary tract infections?  What are other ways to change the alkalinity of my vaginal fluid? Ponder, ponder....

Who would have thought that high school chemistry class would have real-life value? Vinegar. I tried washing the lady parts with vinegar which is the highest food-based acidic substance, just a little lower than battery acid. Yeah, this remedy isn't for anyone with a low tolerance for pain, but by this time I was in so much pain I had nothing to lose. The first ten seconds it burned like acid (but not worse than the fires of hell) then all the burning was gone! It was a miracle!

I have yet to meet a doctor who knows what it is or what to do. I am very thankful for vinegar. For a while if I ate an exceptionally healthy diet that caused any kind of detoxification, the burning comes back and if I ate sugar and junk, it would go away. Made me want to eat chocolate and ice cream for every meal!

Now I used panty liners and change them all the time. If the burning returns, I wash with vinegar and question my diet.  I think the healthier diet I now eat has controlled it for the most part.

More theories:

VULVODYNIA Symptoms include itching, burning, and pain. Statistics show 2.4 million women have this problem and it is thought to be caused by inadequate hormone levels causing inflammation. No one knows for sure. And no one knows what to do with it which doesn't help. I very recently read about a doctor who prescribes estrogen tablets to insert up the nether regions rather than ingest. That will be my next experiment, but I wonder why detoxing makes it worse if it's hormonal?

VESTIBULITIS (or VULVAR VESTIBULITIS)  This is another inflammatory skin condition causing itching, burning, and pain. Again, no one knows what causes it and this is no help.

Chemicals tend to be hormone-disruptors so blaming burning-like-the-fires-of-hell on lack of hormones actually makes sense. As I've said in previous posts, the fact that no one knows what causes it is a clue it has something to do with chemicals that doctors refuse to acknowledge. I get so tired of the AMA being so damn incompetent!

Does anyone have any other personal experiences of hell?

Has anyone found any alternative products?

Miracle treatments?