Ladies, did you know that May is Women’s Health Month? Tomorrow, May 14th also happens to be Women’s National Check-Up Day! If you’ve got an appointment you need to make or a health goal on your mind, this is a great time to take a moment to take care of yourself.

I know that I usually do food-centric posts, but today I want to focus on something a little different…As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I went to a “period party” where health coach Nicole Jardim talked important lady business and Maxim Hygiene‘s Rebecca Alvandi. I learned so much! One of the biggest eye-openers was Rebecca’s presentation on what the f*** is in most commercial tampons and pads and why organic really matters for feminine hygienic products.

Here are a few of the demos she did at the event:

• “The Absorbent Core Test” – Cotton vs. Wood Pulp in Feminine Products
• “The Burn Test” – Cotton vs. Synthetics in Feminine Products
• “The Drag Test” – Dioxins and Feminine Products

I like to joke that growing up in New Jersey and working in health care has made me incredibly hard to shock, but these demos both fascinated me and freaked me out! Just thinking about all the nasty chemicals I’d been mindlessly exposing myself to made me want to crawl out of my skin. I’m not usually one to get super-excited about tampons, but I went home that night and ordered a bunch of Maxim products to try (with my own money).

Not that I’m ever exactly thrilled to get my period, but I was glad to be able to start a new, less toxic habit by replacing a not-so-great product with something I can feel better about. Given the recent lunar eclipses, it was a good time to make smarter, kinder choices about what goes where, if you know what I mean. Let’s cut this short before I start making self-deprecating jokes about my dating history.

I can’t recommend Maxim’s products enough—you can buy them online or find out where to buy them here.