I recently started researching menstrual cups and have decided to switch to them as my main method of menstrual hygiene. I found a community on LiveJournal for menstrual cup users and joined and have gathered a wealth of information from the members of the comm. The other day I was browsing recent posts and a woman had made a post that began with something along the lines of "Hi Ladies," and a moderator politely replied asking her to please remove the gender specific language from her post with a link to a post explaining that gender specific language and the presumption of posters that the members of the comm were female was not permitted in the community. Intrigued, I followed the link. It went on to explain that cups are a popular choice for non-female identified folks (trans men, genderqueers, nongendered, nonbinary, etc) who still have menstrual needs because they are more discreet, eliminate the need to buy products on a regular basis and often require less attention (less frequent changes, etc) which seems to help some non-female identified persons with dysphoria and, as such, there is a strong contingent of non-female people among the membership of the comm and the moderators are very diligent about making sure they feel welcome and comfortable. I was shocked (in a good way) to find this liberal, accepting, inclusive attitude in a comm about menstrual products, which, by it's very nature, could have easily lent itself to be an exclusive, female-only space. Most of the members were very receptive to the rule against gender-specificity and presumption and are very good about using gender neutral language in their posts. The girl that the mod corrected was new and had used the gender-specific wording without realizing it, apologized and rectified the mistake immediately.

I've rarely encountered this level of acceptance for gender identity and this was not an area that I had looked to find it in and was very impressed with the comm for this attitude.
What do you think? Have you found acceptance and inclusivity in places you didn't expect it? Also, if you are a non-female identified person who still has menstrual needs, if you are comfortable sharing, what do you think of cups as a method of menstrual protection. Do you think they would help alleviate dysphoria around your menstruation or would you be uncomfortable with them and why? less

That's really awesome! You don't see that type of thing very often, non-binary folk don't get a lot of recondition. And as a transman, I use a type of menstrual cup and really like them, I don't have to embarrass myself by buying tampons anymore, they're cleaner, easier to maintain, cheaper over time, and make me feel less dysphoric. I have to say, the packaging that they came in is overly feminine, but that's a small price to pay for not having to buy boxes of tampons every year! Hopefully I'll stop bleeding within the next few months though now that I'm on a proper dose of T. less