Tandem

Overview

The Tandem Menstrual Cup Applicator grew from a senior design capstone project in which my team of 5 was tasked with creating a innovative product. We narrowed the prompt further to focus on the area of women’s health, a topic all of us were passionate about.

Menstrual cups have been growing in popularity as people seek out more sustainable hygiene products. We were aware of their reputation for being difficult to use, and market research showed that there were hardly any cup accessory products currently on the market.

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What is a Menstrual Cup Applicator?

A menstrual cup is a type of feminine hygiene product, usually made of a flexible medical grade silicon, worn inside the vagina during menstruation to collect fluid (instead of absorbing fluid as disposable products such as pads and tampons do). Menstrual cups are reusable and have a life expectancy of 10+ years, making them a significantly cheaper and more eco-friendly option.

Menstrual cups are documented as having a steep learning curve, however, and are difficult even for able-bodied people to insert and remove. Our applicator simplifies the insertion and removal process with the goal of making menstrual cups less daunting and accessible to a wider demographic.

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Design Goal

The objective of this design is to aid in menstrual cup insertion and removal, making menstrual cups an option for both people with disabilities and people who have struggled to use menstrual cups in the past. It needs to be comfortable, easy to use, easy to clean, and should have a lifespan of at least ten years to match the average lifespan of a menstrual cup.

​This device will be used for medical purposes and thus must be compatible to human biology. The main concern for this product is preventing it from harming the user. Therefore, all components that come into contact with the vagina or menstrual cup must be FDA approved for internal use, as well as easy to sterilize. The device must be capable of both inserting and removing the menstrual cup, which differentiates it from tampon applicators as they are only used for insertion.

​My team created an original concept, performed a market analysis, did an extensive background search, created an initial specification, developed an original design in SolidWorks, executed failure mode effects analysis using FEA, and produced a full manufacturing documentation package in a final report of the design.

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Research & Needfinding

Guiding Questions

• How might we make the menstruation experience less painful?
• What are the main painpoints in the menstruation experience?

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Whats up with the term 'feminine hygiene'?

When I began this project, I wanted to tackle the social issues surrounding menstruation. I specifically focused in on the term “feminine hygiene.” Not everyone who menstruates is a woman, so the term “feminine hygiene” can be alienating and dismissive of other genders. If you have a uterus, and are not taking hormones to suppress menstruation, you can menstruate regardless of your gender identity.

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Toxic Materials + Loud Packaging + Gendered Product = 'Feminine Hygiene'

I interviewed and surveyed over two hundred people to find out how they feel about their periods. Many of the trans men I interviewed told stories of not changing tampons in public, going past the allotted time they should be inserted. They were more afraid of being “outed” due to the loud packaging than the possible toxic infection they could get from leaving a tampon in too long. Even merely carrying menstrual products around was a risk, because the packaging was overtly feminine normative.

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Tampons were always uncomfortable or painful despite being very careful to put them in properly. Due to dysphoria I also couldn’t handle sticking my hands around or up that area, which is why I never tried cups. - Anonymous Survey Respondent

It’s incredibly gender dysphoric when period products aren’t discreet. Pads and tampons don’t feel discreet, they’re loud too open particularly in a men’s bathroom, they’re overly feminine in packaging (pinks/purples and traditionally feminine patterns if any at all). - Anonymous Survey Respondent

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The problems with menstrual products does not stop there.

Aside from being extremely gendered, alienating, and sexist; menstrual products pose a danger to an individual's health and the health of our planet.

Kane, J. (2015, May 18). Here’s How Much A Woman’s Period Will Cost Her Over A Lifetime. Retrieved January, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/18/period-cost-lifetime_n_7258780.html

Mercola, D. J. (2013, June 17). Women Beware: Most Feminine Hygiene Products Contain Toxic Ingredients. Retrieved February, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/feminine-hygiene-products_b_3359581.html

Taylor, S. J. (2016, February 17). The Pink Tax: Why Women’s Products Often Cost More. Retrieved January, 2017, from http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2016-02-17/the-pink-tax-why-womens-products-often-cost-more

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Ideation

Taking all of the pain points and problems into consideration, we wanted to design a menstrual product that would: reduce the physical confrontation to blood and one’s genitalia, have materials that do not pose a danger to one’s health, had discreet secondary packaging, and had branding that was not “feminine” or dismissive of other genders aside from “female.”

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Concept Development + Prototyping

As we began developing possible design concepts, we wanted to eliminate all risk of toxic materials or risk of TSS (Toxic Shock Syndrome). Medical grade silicone would allow for this safety. From there, we began developing concepts for a menstrual cup that eliminated the need to manual insert the cup into your vagina.

We tested eight different versions of my menstrual cup and created low fidelity 3D printed molds that allowed for rapid prototyping and testing of the cup functionality. We cast over three dozen cups testing cure time, durometer, fill technique, and mold material. If you need to know anything about silicone durometer, I'm your girl! For the packaging, we created mock ups that allowed us to test packaging functionality and overall experience.

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Branding and Packaging Inspiration

For the packaging and branding, we were inspired by the aesthetic and emotion of the packaging for high end electronics and gender neutral skincare. High end electronics have a very subdued and luxurious packaging, while gender neutral skincare have very stylish but inherently gender neutral branding. In our branding and packaging, we were  creating an entirely new menstrual experience: one that you did not have to dread or hide.

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Branding

When developing brand identity, we decided the brand imagery would need to be inherently gender neutral and friendly, leading us to choose bright colors anad opt for a readable, sans-serif font.

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Packaging Design

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Instruction Manual

We also designed an instruction manual to make inserting the cup a less daunting process. Because many of our interviewees and survey respondents mentioned that seeing + touching their genitalia was a triggering experience, we opted to use non-gendered words and less explicit illustrations.

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Testing

In the early stages of testing, we used a uterus model to test our applicator and cup. After making edits to our designs and printing prototypes using medical-grade materials, our team began testing on ourselves as well as on eager volunteers. Our product received raving feedback, with many remarking that the applicator allowed them to insert the cup such that they barely even felt the cup enter. Moreover, all of the trans men who tested our products asked to keep the products to use them again as it made for a safe and seamless menstruation experience.

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Final Product & Packaging

The final cup and applicator were silicone cast in a high fidelity 3D printed mold. The packaging features playful and welcoming visuals and shies away from explicitly stating what the contents of the box are, as we wanted to make sure that users would not be outed if the box were to be seen by someone else.

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Here's a video we made that further details our product journey!

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Reflections

Menstruation is a topic that is not spoken of very often, and we hope to change that with Tandem Products. In the past two weeks, we’ve filed a provisional patent, conducted testing with folks beyond our team, and promoted our brand on Instagram, gaining over 120 followers and reaching 741 accounts. This is just the beginning for Tandem, so make sure to follow @tandem.products on Instagram so you can come along on this ride with us.