A sustainable vagina revolution is under way. But beware homemade tampons

There are certain things I am very happy to reuse in order to help the environment. Shopping bags and coffee cups are on that list. Tampons are definitely not. Despite my personal hesitations, however, it appears that a sustainable vagina revolution is under way. If Etsy is anything to go by, there appears to be a growing interest in homemade menstrual products such as “eco-friendly reusable crocheted tampons.” YouTube, meanwhile, is awash with tutorials showing you how to make your own reusable yarn or cloth tampons.

Homemade tampons may be a fringe trend, but they are enough of a phenomenon to have garnered the attention – and sparked the alarm – of a number of health professionals. “Give knitted or crocheted tampons a pass,” the gynaecologist Jen Gunter advises in her book, The Vagina Bible; they are unregulated and there is “no data on how they could irritate vaginal tissues or affect the growth of bacteria”.

Talking to the New York Post, Dr Adeeti Gupta similarly warned that just because a material is “natural” doesn’t mean you should insert it into your vagina. She further warned that tampons made from yarn or sea sponge risk becoming “partially disintegrated” and leaving fibres behind. Which is not ideal.

I am not here to insult your intelligence by spelling out, one gynaecologist at a time, why knitted tampons are a bad idea. I am here to throw up my hands in dismay, scream into the void, and ask how on earth anyone could think buying a yarn tampon from a stranger online is a good idea?

Frustration at the other options, perhaps. There is a huge lack of transparency around the toxins in tampons, and a dearth of data on how safe they are. Then there is the fact that single-use menstrual products are expensive and an environmental nightmare. And while menstrual cups are an economical and sustainable alternative, they can also seem intimidating.

That people have resorted to knitting their own solutions really isn’t as weird as it may first seem.