Why I backed the Looncup

“Periods! Aghh!” Why is this one little word so scary?

I’ve never before thought about writing an article on this sort of thing or felt the need to address its taboo in social society but well, here I am… and its weird.

I always thought it was just ultra cool hippies or strong feminists types who talked about these issues. Women who where comfortable adult-ing and could successfully debate the facts, definitely not me. I’m nearly 30 and I still feel awkward when buying tampons from a male attendant.

So when I spotted the Looncup project on Kickstarter, via Mashable, my first reaction was “ewwwwww” but the more I thought about it, the more I thought “hell yeah, let’s get geeky about menstruation”.

The Looncup is a penned as “the world’s first smart menstruation cup”. What is a menstruation cup? Well that’s a fun read, but once you get over the ick factor, which I quite haven’t yet, its basically environmentally friendly alternative to tampons and pads.

It’s crazy to think that in this innovation hungry world, women only have these three options, and that it’s actually been like that for centuries.

“Where is the Apple of menstruation? Where is the Google of PMS?”

It seems that this awkward and uncomfortable topic has just been left behind. Self driving cars, 4k screens and walking robots are obviously more important to humanity.

My initial reaction to the Looncup was disgust, “why would I want to track how much .. liquid.. has been collected”, but the more I thought about what this product was doing, what it was challenging, the more I wanted to support.

I am a big lover of mobile and wearable tech, and have been for years. The massive sci-fi geek in me is excited about the possibilities and opportunities for future products and gadgets.

“How will humans interact with digital in 10 years? Will it be through the mind or maybe the elbow…

The Looncup is a massive step not only in women’s health technology but for the wearable industry too. I think this is one of the first products that I’ve come across that is actually inserted. It breaks the mould of what is considered worn and challenges us into thinking about the next phase of wearable tech.

“Periods.. smeriods”

So that’s why I choose to just grow up and support a product that is pushing the boundaries of innovation to revolutionise an industry that 50% of the globe is effected by.

There’s still time to support the Looncup team. As of writing this article, they have just reached their goal of $50,000 but if you love tech, if you love women and if you love happy women, then you might want to back it too! Could make an interesting secret Santa present!

“I can’t believe I talked about periods to my boss.”

Whether or not I’ll actually try it… is yet to be decided, but at least I will have the option.