Kim and Amy Sedgwick are siblings on a mission to help empower women in their sexuality, and to educate them on greener, more holistic and healthier options for birth control and reproductive health. Co-owners of the Red Tent Sisters store in Toronto, as well as the online store ecosex.ca, Amy and Kim have combined their respective passions (Amy as a holistic reproductive health practitioner, and Kim as a women’s studies graduate) into a unique and profitable business that enables women to feel comfortable discussing and exploring the most intimate – and natural – part of their lives.

The concept for their store and education work coalesced shortly after Amy, a nursing new mother, discovered that the progestin-only birth control pill she had just started using was causing her daughter to choke on Mom’s artificially boosted milk supply during breastfeeding.

This was also around the time that the media was reporting on the dangers of the industrial chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) and the government began taking steps to remove it from baby bottles. Then Amy and Kim’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. That got the pair thinking about how their three generations were being impacted by the toxins they were exposed to and the extent to which the birth control pill can interfere with women’s regular hormonal function and health.

The sisters now offer a range of “ecosex” products and services both online and in their store, including books on fertility and sexuality; courses like “8 Steps to Conception: The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Getting Pregnant” and “Confidence Building Secrets for Pleasuring Him/Her;” and eco-friendly sex toys, birth control options and products for menstruation.

Kim and Amy share their top five “get started” tips for those with a desire to embrace the ecosex lifestyle:

• Lubricants – Choose a paraben- and glycerin-free lubricant. Parabens, which have been identified as allergens, endocrine disruptors and potentially carcinogenic and are being removed from many beauty care products, do not belong in one of the most porous and sensitive parts of our bodies. And glycerin can convert into sugar – many women report yeast infections after use, say Kim and Amy.  Natural lubricants are comparably priced to the mainstream brands.
• Menstrual care – Replace your traditional tampons with an organic cotton brand to eliminate your exposure to and absorption of pesticides. Better still, try even greener alternatives such as the DivaCup and washable cloth Lunapads.
• Birth control – Become aware of the health and environmental concerns around the birth control pill. In addition to well documented health issues for those who use them directly, the Pill is urinated out of our bodies and into our water supply. Consider and get educated about holistic options such as the Justisse Method of fertility management.
• Sex toys – The sex toy industry in Canada isn’t regulated. Instead, sex toys are sold as products “for novelty use only,” and as a result manufacturers don’t have to be accountable for the materials they are made from. Most are made with hormone-disrupting phthalates – that’s what gives the toys their suppleness (thankfully, phthalates have been banned from children’s toys). While the sisters have done a lot to raise awareness for this issue and advocate for regulation, they warn it is still up to us to do the research before we buy a sex toy to be sure it is phthalate-free. If you’re not sure from the box labelling about the materials used in a toy, ask for one to be taken out of its packaging.  If there is a strong off-gassing smell, this product is not eco-friendly or safe for you to use in or on your body.
• Condoms – If you are using condoms, don’t flush them down the toilet. This is one instance where it’s more eco-friendly to throw them into the garbage. Unfortunately, there are no biodegradable condoms currently available in Canada.

To learn more, visit redtentsisters.com or ecosex.ca.

Keren Brown is a passionate advocate for the integration of effective natural therapies into the conventional health care system, as a means to emphasize prevention and minimize chronic disease. She was co-founder and Executive Director of the Holistic Health Research Foundation of Canada, which, during its seven years of operation, raised nearly $2 million for holistic health education and research, and funded more than 20 university-based research studies.  A writer and editor with a communications consulting background, Keren is the President of GoGreenInside^® and the publisher of gogreeninside.com.