I have several friends who swear by the MoonCup: http://www.mooncup.com/

The Diva Cup is AMAZING.

http://www.divacup.com/

I use the Natracare line, and they are great. if you want to use products that are similar to what you've probably been using, i find them incredible. I get them at the health food store, and they are only $1-$2 more than what you find at the normal drugstore.

I'll second the Diva Cup. I've used one for years.

etsy is FULL of cloth pads and pantiliners. i don't know if i'd want to look for reusable tampons (eeeeew) but my preference lies in a reusable cup. they're fabulous.

I third the diva cup notion(or any menstrual cup) so convenient and so clean feeling. You almost forget you're having your period. :)

I'm using my Diva Cup right now! I bought it three years ago and will never look back. It saves scads of money at the grocery store, there's nothing to throw away, and you can't beat the convenience.

After agonizing about this very issue for far too long, I finally buckled down and made my own sanitary pads out of some thrifted fleece (washed first of course!) The tricky part was finding something waterproof to put in the middle to keep it from bleeding (ha) through. I found some waterproof/hypoallergenic pillowcases on Amazon for $10 and cut those up to put in the middle. There are patterns and suggestions all over the Internet for making your own washable pads and I'm actually quite glad I finally did it.

Additionally, Seventh Generation makes good feminine products...still throwaway, but with greener materials. :)

My partner and I both switched to the Diva Cup last year and LOVE them! I was a die hard tampon user (since my very first cycle), she never liked tampons but is surprisingly comfortable with the Diva Cup, although she does seem to think her cramps are worse while wearing it. I, however, love it more and more each month.

I have also tried organic, unbleached tampons (Natracare) and found them to be bulky, cumbersome to insert, hard to maneuver, and uncomfortable to wear.

Sometimes, the Diva Cup and public restrooms don't mix so well, but 98% of the time I use a DivaCup, and 7th Gen tampons the rest. For you Leave No Trace-savvy backpackers, the Diva Cup eliminates the need to pack out tampons, but the sanitary issue is definitely something to be careful of.

Diva Cup!!! I am endlessly excited about never buying a gigantic box of tampons again.

I've used both the diva cup and keeper (earlier version of the moon cup) and love and adore them both so incredibly hugely much. I personally find them much more comfortable than tampons. However, be prepared for the learning curve: it takes some people a few cycles to get the hang of insertion (there are actually different approaches to it, the internet will give you good instructions). Some people snip the stems of their keepers/moon cups to make them more comfy to wear, though mine was never a problem. You can wear them for longer periods more comfortably, in my experience, like overnight. When you first try 'em, give yourself permission to get frustrated, give up and go with a back up method if necessary - it'll take the pressure off. Once you get the insertion down, life is GREAT. They're fantastic for travel too. God, I love these products.

In the reusable tampon department, you can use sea sponge "tampons". They're actual sea sponges, reusable (I think their life is 3-6 cycles, but I'm not sure), and biodegradable. Be sure to check their sourcing/harvesting info. Just insert (again, tricky), wear, rinse, re-insert. I personally didn't find them terribly comfy, but some love them.

A few options I've used with on the go diva use: find a single-stall bathroom, like the kind some places have for families, with a sink in the stall with you - eliminates the need to wander around holding your diva cup. If that's not an option and I have a bottle of water with me, I'll rinse with a splash from there. And finally, worst case scenario, dump it out and re-insert without a rinse - not the end of the world, since it came out of your body and is going straight back in (advisability of this strategy partly depends on how sensitive your parts are though).

Diva cup/Moon cup. Though, the Moon Cup isn't available in the US. I had a friend ship me one from the UK. I find it much more convenient than tampons. I can't imagine using anything else.

If you have an IUD, you can't use the diva cup. I used my sewing maching to make my own pads from a thrifted flannel sheet and an old towel. Never looked back. They're way more comfortable than the disposables, and just as effective. There are lots of patterns available online.

I love the Diva Cup and use Lunapads & pantyliners as well.

AFAIK, feminine products are compostable, though you'll want to ensure that you either bury them deep in your pile, throughly cover them with a carbon cover material, or both.

I'm not entirely sure what feminie products are made of, but I'm informed that you'll have to pick strips of plastic out of your compost if you do this.

There's certain things I won't green up and what I shove in private girl regions is one of them. I don't like the idea of recycled feminine products. That someone's old newspaper could now be in my panties! If you are comfortable with pads and things of that nature, as many have said there's great options. I heard years ago about something made of papyrus that's very eco-conscious. If you prefer tampons though, Its degradable cardboard and cotton fiber (I don't see the point in the plastic kind) so I think you're ok.

halesje it's actually just fine to use a Diva Cup with an IUD. You just have to be a little more careful!

I've used both Diva Cup and sea sponge tampons. I've used the sea sponge tampons during sex, too, to keep things from getting too messy. They rock. The Diva Cup is brilliant. Am I the only one who is really mystified why someone is asking this question and has NOT heard of the Diva Cup?

it's amazing how many of my friends have not heard of the menstrual cup - I think it would be great to feature either the mooncup or diva cup in a post on this website - talk about a great design and green solution and cheaper alternative to conventional pads & tampons.

I've stuck with Natracare tampons and the organic ones sold at Trader Joe's. I really wanted to like Glad Rags (organic cotton washable pads) but i found them to be utterly impractical and bulky. How does the Diva Cup work for those with an active lifestyle? On a daily basis I take dance or yoga classes and just have this image of menstrual fluids splashing all over the place! Otherwise, they seem like the ideal solution for the inactive. Am I wrong?

What's the deal with the diva cup and an IUD?
I have never used the cup just because I prefer cotton pads, which I made myself (which is a fancy way of saying I cut organic quilt cotton batting into squares with scissors). For work and public, I keep a ziplock bag with me that can easily sneak in my pocket when I need to change. I know people who use safety pins to secure them, but I've never had issues with too much movement by using one as my primary and one as a liner.
I just don't understand how anyone can use purchased pads--they don't 'breathe' and have sticky tape all over them that rubs in many wrong places. A petroleum plastic product for such a sensitive area? No thanks!

I have a question for diva cup users:

How long does the cup last? Rather, how long have you been using yours? Have you ever had to replace it? I was reading the faqs on the website and it said to replace the cup every year. This surprised me, it seems that it doesn't last too long! Has anybody used theirs for longer?

I used the same Keeper for 5 or 6 years until it somehow disappeared. I'm on I believe year 2 with the same Diva cup, and it's fine. I know the natural rubber in the Keeper would eventually start to crack (it was starting to show some wear on mine). The thing with the Diva cup is that you can see the discoloration that you couldn't with the Keeper, so this may be a problem for some people.

It may perhaps be an issue with bacteria growing in microscopic tears in the plastic, so perhaps more scrupulous cleanliness would be advised after the first year.

Whoops I should have said same Moon Cup for the last two years, which is basically the same as the Diva Cup. And it is possible to buy the Moon Cup in the US. It's made in the US, in fact.

If I remember correctly, the US Mooncup is different from the UK Mooncup and the US Mooncup did something shady (maybe stealing the name and keeping the original UK version out of the US?), leading a lot of menstrual cup users to boycott the US Mooncup.

the DivaCup is phenomenal, and the materials are perfectly sanitary and of the highest grade. There's no issue putting it in one's body.

(also, the DC is fine no matter what I do - running, stairs, aerobics.. no problem!)

i love sea sponges. you have to be comfortable with bloody hands and reaching in to pull them out, but i don't have a problem with that. i buy mine at home depot in the painting department (remember sponge painting?), and can get a bag of two, each of which i cut in half for a total of four sponges, for about $10. those usually last me 6-9 cycles. just make sure you get natural seas sponges--many beauty/painting sponges are made from plastic and will not absorb a thing!

diva cup is so awesome. i can't even remember why i used anything else. i only wish i had switched over earlier. and every month, i take the money i would have spent on tampons and buy myself something great.

I would never go back from the Diva cup. I've had mine for about 4 years now - I've never seen anything that said you *have* to replace it every year. I boil mine to sanitize it and discoloration is the only issue, which I really don't mind. Most people I know have to trim the stem on the bottom the make it comfortable, but I've had less cramps and other menstrual problems since I switched. I do seriously forget I have my period a lot of the time and it has saved me tons of money over the years.