Betty Dodson with Carlin Ross

Better Orgasms. Better World.

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Did you know you can recycle your pee? Apparently it's pretty useful for composting woodchips and leaves, or deterring pests if you pee, or pour your collected, diluted pee, around (but not on) your garden. I just read a little article about this today.

And since I'm on my 'shark week' it got me thinking about collecting menstrual blood, and whether that would be at all useful. A quick google search tells me that you can collect it for future possible stem cell therapy, or to donate it. And apparently some of those crazy wiccan kids use it for "spells" and just keep their "moon blood" in jars and such in their fridge for the heck of it. I read that you could also put it in a box and dry it out, then cut it into pieces.

Just like pee, it has nitrogen that replenishes soil and feeds plants, so it's an equally good fertilizer. People even buy "blood meal" fertilizer, which is the dried and powdered blood of livestock. And heck, this stuff is free and comes around every month or so. I've heard it can attract ants, so the best way is probably just to put it in with your hot compost. Another way would be if you use tampons or cloth pads, you could soak it in water in a jar or bucket of water, and pour the pink water around your garden. Or, pour a diva/keeper cup full of blood into a watering can to dilute and water the houseplants with it once a month.

The only thing you might need to be careful of is if you have some kind of blood-borne illness, however the risk of anything living outside of the body for long is very low.

Right now I probably won't be doing anything like this, because I'm living with the parents again and I would feel weird spreading my period blood all around my mum's garden. No doubt when I have my own little house I'll have a hot compost and garden set-up, so I might consider it in the future.

I have heard of some people collecting their menstrual fluid and using it as paint, also. Personally I don't know if I would ever do anything like that. I'm not opposed to the idea per se, I suppose I have seen some nice blood paintings, it's just more the logistics. Saving it, spreading it around with my paint brushes, washing the brushes, drying the painting, etc. Just seems like more work than regular paint.

The thing is, though, that keeping it in a jar, I'm pretty sure it would start to smell nasty after a day or a few days. I know if I accidentally miss a day of changing the water my cloth pads are soaking in, it doesn't smell great. But I kind of secretly want to keep it anyway. Not for any particular reason, I'm just dying to know how much blood I make every month. I'm always reading or hearing on medical shows about how most women lose about 3-4 ounces (90-120ml) of menstrual fluid per period, and the diva cup holds about 1 ounce (30ml). And I have to empty my diva at least 3-4 times during the first day of my period alone, let alone the entire rest of the week. And I'm talking FULL cups too. So I kind of just want to measure it, and know how much is really in there, for curiosity's sake. It doesn't worry me, and I'm pretty sure the rest of the women in my family are on the heavy side of the spectrum too, but I know it's way more than 3-4 ounces. I just want to be able to prove it too!