Just wanted to let you know that the rumors of Instead going under are just that: rumors.
The letters on your site stating this as a definite fact pretty much sent me into an unnecessary panic. I've just gotten off the phone with an someone at the Instead 800 number [1-800-INSTEAD] (which is fully functional, contrary to what someone had stated) and the woman I spoke to was surprised that I had read such a rumor, told me they were doing fine and expanding an add campaign, and told me that their Web site has merely changed addresses. It is now at www.softcup.com. Please check this sort of thing out before you print these letters, I've spent the last 24 hours trying to get something reliable on it. I guess I'll know better than to be taken in by anything I read on the 'Net in the future.
Other than that you have a really great site. [Thanks!] I for one am glad to see a man or a woman taking an interest in menstruation. It's how I spend 20 percent of my time, and I'm not embarrassed to talk about it. I'm glad other folks aren't either.
Hi,
I read about the Instead product in a magazine and was dying to try it forever. I never saw it advertised again, no one in drugstores or pharmacies ever knew what I was referring too, and even gynecologists shook their heads. When I finally found it by chance in a store about two years ago, I snatched it up!
It was awkward, the first insertion or two, then wonderful. I never think about my period, you feel so clean and dry and normal I actually forget I am having it. I have tried telling everyone about it, and the friends who have tried it love it, too, but also were wondering about never hearing about it and being able to find it anywhere.
Now I am hearing the company is closing, and I wonder why; a really good product didn't have a chance. [The company is up and running; see above.]
I thought Instead was a female condom much like a diaphragm - at my local drug stores they sell them with the condoms and spermicides. Maybe the company wouldn't fold [but it's alive!] if they were a little more self-explanatory with their product and told stores to stock them with the feminine hygiene products instead of with birth control.
Hello Mr. Finley!
I discovered your Web site last year while researching information on menstrual cups. I wanted to know more to make an informed decision before plunking down $35 for The Keeper. While I trusted the data offered by the manufacturer, I wanted to hear objective commentary. Your site was very helpful in finding this. Thanks!
Originally, I was using Instead menstrual cups but had great reservations about disposal (non-biodegradability). Then I learned (through your Web site) that Ultrafem was going out of business [it did, but it's now alive again, as the writer says further on]. That was around the time I was making my decision to buy The Keeper and it helped me to make my decision to go ahead with The Keeper. (But that's another story.)
I thought you would want to know that the most recent issue of a popular US women's magazine (Glamour, April 1999, p. 196) included an ad for Instead. Seems the company has been resurrected. They have a working Web site http://www.softcup.com and have a "Starter kit" that includes a sample and a video. Looks like they were able to stay afloat after all.
Although I use The Keeper, it's great to know that women still have an alternative to the traditional choices which help them to be more in tune with their cycles. I've noticed things with The Keeper that I would have otherwise missed with pads or tampons (color, consistency of flow, etc.).
Thanks again for this great resource. I've told all my friends about it. [Many thanks!]
Please, may I post a letter on your letter page?
I'm researching a documentary for the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] about menstruation - myths and facts and blessing or curse.
I have much information about the curse and predjudice but I am finding scant information about the blessing! I was thrilled to find medical information linking surgery for breast cancer and the menstrual cycle and the New Scientist report about differing medication levels required during the 28-day cycle, and the research about eating requirements differing during the cycle etc., but I want to hear from women who have evidence of the cycle as a blessing, for example, artists, writers, etc., who are at their most creative whilst menstruating.
I also want to meet women who practice menstrual seclusion, as with menstrual huts of the past [and of the present; women still use menstrual huts].
And anything and everything to do with research into menstruation.
Next week I am interviewing Mr Peter Redgrove and Penelope Shuttle who wrote the first book on menstruation that offered positive information, The Wise Wound, 1978. I am very excited about asking many questions resulting from the book. If you have any questions for them pertaining to the book or their second book, Alchemy for Women, about the dream cycle corresponding to the menstrual cycle, I would be delighted to forward them to them on your behalf. They are not on the net so any questions would have to have addresses!
Thank you so much for this glorious Web site [many thanks to you for saying that!] and I look forward to hearing from visitors to your site.
Ali Kedge.
ali@shortkedge.freeserve.co.uk or fflic.zip@business.ntl.com
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility and is linked to diabetes.