Why Has It Taken the Menstrual Cup So Long to Go Mainstream?
July 7, 2016 11:16 AM   Subscribe

In 1937 actress Leona W. Chalmers filed a remarkable application at the Philadelphia branch of the United States Patent Office: a funnel-shaped receptacle of vulcanized rubber inserted low into the vagina to collect menstrual fluid, rather than soak it up like a Kotex pad did. This invention was later sold as the Tasette, but it never gained commercial success though it had a few devotees. It wasn't until 50 years later that a similar device called The Keeper emerged. We have now entered the age of the menstrual cup, with multiple brands easily purchased online and in stores like Whole Foods, and reviews and comparisons on YouTube and blogs in every corner of the internet. But why did it take so long for them to become mainstream?
posted by apricot (191 comments total) 28 users marked this as a favorite
 
Maybe when I turn 40 in November is when I'll give the ole menstrual cup a go, provided I don't destroy these g-damn ovaries with my bare hands first.

/sorry, period came two weeks early and am feeling very very madsad
posted by Kitteh at 11:27 AM on July 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


The menstrual cup is amazing. I'm angry at myself for not hopping on the bandwagon earlier.
posted by geekigirl at 11:28 AM on July 7, 2016 [7 favorites]


I had never heard of a menstrual cup before college, and only then it was because someone had slapped a sticker on a disposal bin in a toilet stall that said "tired of this? try a diva cup!" HELL YES I'M TIRED OF THIS. As soon as I got back to my dorm I immediately googled, did a bit of reading, and within an hour had one ordered and on its way. Never looked back.

Thank you, mystery guerrilla stickerer.
posted by phunniemee at 11:31 AM on July 7, 2016 [35 favorites]


Well in the case of my wife, it's because she finds blood just gross and triggery. She finds it bad enough to deal with pads- dumping it from a cup would be totally unacceptable.

Of course it's also interesting that the article briefly mentions possible objections to the menstrual cup, but then promptly ignores them
posted by happyroach at 11:35 AM on July 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


I love my diva cup! That being said: they are expensive and also require some fiddling to get right until you get the hang of it. When I was younger I was squeamish about interacting with my lower cavities and I certainly wasn't up for it during my period. I can see why some menstruants might not get on board right away.
posted by bigstace at 11:39 AM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Eh. Speaking for myself and at least one other menstruating person, some of us find the idea flat-out gross. I want it to be absorbed and cleaned up, not gathering in a cesspool of dying tissue collecting inside of me.

Also, the presence of a few hard-core diva cup evangelists has sparked some serious backlash in our cases.

But I'm happy that it works for others!
posted by aperturescientist at 11:40 AM on July 7, 2016 [29 favorites]


I love mine and I will never go back. But I will never say it's a solution for everyone. It's messy (you will get blood on your hands). It can be awkward to remove and insert. It requires a level of comfort with your bodily functions that not everyone has (even if you are, in general, comfortable with your body).

The menstrual cup was a great choice for me and I'm definitely a fan of people exploring it (and other alternatives to disposable products), but if it's not your thing, it's not your thing. Periods are enough of a pain that I'd rather people do what makes them the most comfortable.
posted by darksong at 11:42 AM on July 7, 2016 [16 favorites]


I like mine a lot! It makes shedding my uterine wall much easier when I'm doing fieldwork with no plumbing and no good options for disposing of tampons and pads.
posted by ChuraChura at 11:42 AM on July 7, 2016 [25 favorites]


Why Has It Taken the Menstrual Cup So Long to Go Mainstream?

Because it's an awful, inconvenient and messy way to manage menstrual blood flow? I tried to like it, I really did, but after the second time of finding myself in a crowded public bathroom with blood soaked hands and a menstrual cup needing washing, I did a quick mental cost-benefit analysis and noped out of ever using one again.
posted by scantee at 11:44 AM on July 7, 2016 [52 favorites]


I'll always be a pads lady. Not that wilde about putting stuff up my vag (yes, even pretty small stuff) tbh.
posted by ZeroAmbition at 11:44 AM on July 7, 2016 [12 favorites]


I bought a Keeper circa 1997 when I was an undergrad. I told a couple of friends and they reacted like it was the weirdest thing they had ever heard in their lives. Years later (but before cups went mainstream) they still brought it up. I used it for a year or two but eventually went back to tampons because I hate the way it felt taking it out (I always felt like it was somehow pumping air into my uterous and it kind of hurt. I gave it a go again a few years ago, and same thing with the diva cup...air pumping when I pulled it out. But now that it's mainstream I found a video on youtube video where three little girls (seriously, they're like 12) explained the proper extraction technique. I'm a little embarrassed that I apparently need children to explain this to me.

A couple of years ago, after surgery, I found that my diva cup was no longer a good fit. I found this handy-dandy size comparison chart of a menstrual cups and used it to guesstimate what cup might be a better fit, watched some review videos by those little girls and LO found the perfect cup for me. And we lived happily ever after.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:46 AM on July 7, 2016 [10 favorites]


I haven't menstruated in... quite some time due to childbearing and then IUD-having, but do they still make Instead cups? They're disposable, which still gives you the issue of adding stuff to landfills but a convenient menstrual cup alternative that does not require one to wash something pretty intimate out in a public sink. And you can wear a single one for a lot longer than you can go with a tampon or pad. I used to keep a box around for times that my non-disposable cup (was it called a Moon Cup? I can't remember. I was an early adopter, it was a long time ago) just wouldn't be practical.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:47 AM on July 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


I have backed down from my original "everyone should do this!!" to "everyone should have access to this, in case they want it!!" position. Just like many things in life, it's okay to use whatever tool or tools - there doesn't need to be One True Way - work under whatever circumstances.

I really like my cup on the days that nothing else really works. But there are times where I avoid it because it's not effortless, my home toilets are those fucking miniature round ones and I am a plus-sized person which means - aside from being slightly dinosaur-armed for deploying and removing things from inside my body - there's not a ton of room to manoeuver. I have zero interest in using it in a stall with no sink, either. I'm home a lot, and willing to deal with the tiny toilet situation since there's a sink at my elbow, and I really don't like pads or tampons, but there are a lot of days where I'm reaching for tampons instead of dealing with the cup.

And frankly, sometimes I can't get it out. I have had a couple of extremely awful clumsiness-related accidents in my bathroom. It's super gross, though for me it's sort of fascinating-gross.

If men got periods, everyone would have a home vacuum extraction machine and get the whole goddamn ordeal over in half an hour.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:47 AM on July 7, 2016 [29 favorites]


I find the blood in my cup to be so, so, so much less gross than blood collecting on a pad or tampon. It doesn't really smell at all, for one thing. Also, public bathrooms have never been a problem because I just use TP to wipe it clean? They don't need to be rinsed with every use.

I was a cup user for five years before I had a kid. Once I squeezed one out, my cup became briefly unusable because I have a low cervix--I would start squeezing the cup out with any movement, which is, like, panic-attack inducing. But going back to tampons was so, so bad. And expensive. And leaky. And stinky. And messy.

I finally found the solution: pre-pregnancy-sized cup inside out! (it's a super jennie, btw, which is cheaper than the divacup and comes in cuter packaging) And now my life is good again. I was thinking about all of this recently, how I'm really glad to be menstruating in the era of cups. Maybe they don't work for everyone, but I feel sad for people that they don't work for just because it's been such a huge improvement in my general female-bodied life.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:47 AM on July 7, 2016 [16 favorites]


Ooooh yeah, If only I had a penguin, it was the Keeper! That's what I had in the 90s.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:47 AM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I have mixed feelings about the cup. I've used one for five years and genuinely believe it to be the best option for me given the environmental benefits all, but then I had no problems with the learning curve, am pretty much never inconvenienced by the process and am entirely non-squeamish about blood/goo issues. I can totally see how that's a bit of a luck of the draw physiologically though and why therefore the cup's not that appealing to everyone.

It's a weird one, part of me thinks that it's a terrible shame that anyone would feel offended by their own body and the natural functions thereof and that getting with the cup might be a nice opportunity to get past that, on the other hand I have no truck with judging personal preferences, especially around the bother of menstruation.

So in summary, chalk me up as another fan-but-not-evangelist.
posted by freya_lamb at 11:48 AM on July 7, 2016 [7 favorites]


Oh, but I will say that a bad cup is baaaaad. I tried to switch to a post-pregnancy sized cup first. I think it was the MeLuna? They're firmer than the other cups I've tried. And a bunch of times it opened while half-inserted, right on some still-tender scar tissue I have from childbirth. BARF. Worst feeling in the world. The one I have now though is great. May every woman find her goldilocks period product.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:50 AM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I tried one. I'm all about buying something reusable once rather than buying disposable things over and over again. Less waste. Less money. Yay!

And then.

I discovered that because of some weird quirks of my anatomy (long torso, not very bendy wrists) I couldn't get the damn thing out. I ended up on the bathroom floor in some serious yoga poses while considering which of my friends would be more amused than horrified to get a text asking for help with this.

Once I finally got it out, I decided that I was a tampon user for life. Or, you know, until menopause.

So sad.
posted by mcduff at 11:51 AM on July 7, 2016 [7 favorites]


I've always, always been happy with tampons. No issues with feeling them once they're in, no issues with them sliding down when they're full (THAT HAPPENS???), insertion and removal have always been a breeze.

So I'm not going to try a cup because I'm actually super happy with my period product and it's really nice to hear other women saying that's okay because for a long time, there would be Grief Given if I expressed zero interest in trying a cup.
posted by cooker girl at 11:57 AM on July 7, 2016 [14 favorites]


Oh, yeah, I also find them painful to insert - and I've tried several types, the Sckoon model I'm using is the smallest most flexible one on the market (at least as of two years ago) and between the sudden unfurling on insertion and not having extremely short nails, it's not a great user experience. And it occasionally puts enough pressure on stuff that I can't pee with any real enthusiasm, and that's not cool.

My removal trick, though, is to push. Gently, don't rupture anything, but push like a bowel movement or reverse kegel and it should make the base "crown" slightly, which makes it easier to get a firm grip.

But yeah, if you've never had a tampon attempt to exit while you're walking, or fall out as soon as you are seated on the throne, you're living a better life than me. Sometimes that 10-12 hours the cup buys me is a bigger deal than the discomforts.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:00 PM on July 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


Oh, and just a general cup pro-tip: it seems that foreign manufacturers have jumped on the cup trend and there are all sorts of cups that can be had for under $10 on amazon, which was helpful for me when I wanted to try both a post- and pre-pregnancy size but didn't want to spend $40 on testing different sizes.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:01 PM on July 7, 2016


If men got periods, everyone would have a home vacuum extraction machine and get the whole goddamn ordeal over in half an hour.

I have no opinion either way on Diva Cups, but I don't know why you'd have to wait for men to have periods to develop a home vacuum extraction machine. It sounds like Ms. Chalmers patented her invention, and that some people love it (while others don't), but if you have an idea for a better solution, why not make it?
posted by spacewrench at 12:01 PM on July 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


Not trying to evangelize, but for anyone who has had specific problems and think a cup might be right for them except for...

MeLuna makes about 72 varieties of cups - 2 lengths * 4 sizes * 3 softnesses * 4 styles (also * 8 colours, but that doesn't really affect function). So if you have a low cervix, get the shorty (available in 4 sizes, 3 softnesses, and 4 styles!). If you don't want it to unfold too easily, get the softer version of whatever length/size/style you want etc. Here's their article on choosing the right option for you.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:02 PM on July 7, 2016 [5 favorites]


I am very bitter about menstrual cups.

I tried one, not long after my very painful divorce, at a difficult time in my life, and had a bad experience, and I posted a heartfelt and totally honest and truthful review of said cup on Amazon, while still shaking and half-drunk from the process.

It was not a positive review.

It DID happen to get me the most 'fame' of anything I've ever written, with dozens and dozens of people writing to tell me how much they'd laughed, but it also garnered so much surprising HATE from people who were SO LIVID that I had DARED to speak ill of THE CUP OF GODDESSES-- that the review was pulled from Amazon. The cup and its pros and cons aside, there are RABID FANS of this product that will indulge in some really nasty shaming of everyone who DOESN'T use the cup, and that sours me on what is clearly a decent product for many people. Pity.
posted by The otter lady at 12:04 PM on July 7, 2016 [69 favorites]


Now that I am not writing in-post, I can share my cup experience.

When I was about 25, over 10 years ago, I decided to try the Diva Cup. I ordered it online and waited with anticipation until my next period. The day finally arrived and I inserted it before going to bed. In the morning I went to take it out and it was stuck. Stuck, stuck, stuck. I tried everything and just couldn't grip it or get my finger over the top lip. I called their customer service line for tips, tried them all and it was still stuck. I called in late to work because I was trying to get it out. The next morning I went to Planned Parenthood where a Korean Nurse Practitioner fished it out and chastised me for putting an object in my vagina. I tried to explain what it was to no avail.

Luckily back then they had a money back guarantee so I wasn't out $40. I have been tempted to try other brands, but after that experience? I'm leery.
posted by apricot at 12:05 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


I didn't like mine either. I thought it would be a good solution for my very heavy periods, but after three cycles with at least one catastrophic containment failure, I had to concede that I was just too oafish to use it consistently.

I totally understand the fandom - I was similarly all-in for IUDs and have had to mediate my unqualified praise after chatting with a few people for whom they did just not work.

Let us all have access to the solutions that work best for us. May a million reproductive tract care options bloom.
posted by palindromic at 12:05 PM on July 7, 2016 [5 favorites]


but if you have an idea for a better solution, why not make it?

Oh, that machine already exists. In some states, you have to drive 12+ hours to get access to one, so it seems like politically it might not be a good time to invest in the production of them.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:06 PM on July 7, 2016 [26 favorites]


+1 to "not being able to get it out" concerns, plus, I don't want to expose my cervix to that kind of suction force. Have heard anecdotal stories about this potentially being a problem for some people (result, things not staying where they ought to stay). I am usually "some people" when it comes to stuff like this, so, yay pads
posted by cotton dress sock at 12:07 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Of course it's also interesting that the article briefly mentions possible objections [such as blood is gross and triggery] to the menstrual cup, but then promptly ignores them

That might be because of the women (myself included) who assumed that the whole "dumping of blood" aspect would be gross and awful realize that it is in fact not a big deal once they actually try it.

Same with supposed "pain" of insertion -- even the "large" versions are smaller than any penis or insertable toy that I've seen. Every vagina is different obviously, but it seems like the tall parts of the bell curve should probably be fine.

with multiple brands easily purchased online and in stores like Whole Foods

Target carries Diva Cups now. Like on the shelf, no need to talk to a phamacist or anything (which is a tad surprising because they are priced and sized in a way that would make them a good target for shoplifting).
posted by sparklemotion at 12:09 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


I don't feel like trying a bunch of different cups to figure out the right option (if indeed there is one for me) and I don't want to try a bunch of cheapass imported stuff to see either. I used the Instead disposable ones for a while, which were good but not that much better than tampons, and sometimes I have enough pain for the first day or two that the only thing of interest is a pad, so for me personally I do not see the point.

The dumping of blood to me was gross but not much more or less gross than tampons. That said, I always did it in a private bathroom, not a stall.
posted by jeather at 12:11 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Same with supposed "pain" of insertion -- even the "large" versions are smaller than any penis or insertable toy that I've seen

People in this thread have mentioned it, so it's probably a thing not to dismiss at this point. I don't own any toys that tent out to make a vacuum seal in my vagina, I suppose they probably exist, I hope nobody's penis does that though ever. I also hope I never have to wad up a penis into complicated origami to get it in, and I imagine penis-havers hope the same.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:12 PM on July 7, 2016 [48 favorites]


This may verge on TMI, but I swear it is relevant -

In other Askmes about contraception, I've been vocal about loving the cervical cap; which is sort of the same construction as the Menstrual cup, except it fits directly over your cervix. And I love the thing for me, but I ran into one big problem with it once - it was too comfortable. To the point that once, I just plain forgot I had the damn thing in, and it stayed in me for an entire week, at which point I was finally at my OBGYN's for a regular checkup and she observed "I see you had sex yesterday," and I was all "what? No, my boyfriend's been out of town for a week....oh. Oh CRAP." My doctor had to prescribe me a just-in-case antibiotic to help me in case some ungodly terror had been spawned in there in the course of that week, especially since we discovered that my period had also started in the meantime and the cap had been blocking it.

I mention this because -

If I ran into a menstrual cap that was too comfortable, I clearly would run the risk of forgetting it was there altogether and infecting myself with a plague. And with an uncomfortable cup, I'd have the same problem of discomfort I had with tampons which sent me to pads in the first place.

In conclusion - I don't go for the menstrual cup because my reproductive system is just plain weird.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:12 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


I will say that with a cup and the heaviness of my post-partum period, I need to periodically check the lip beneath my toilet seat, least a male visitor (my husband wouldn't care) find a smear of blood there, which seems to happen with emptying cups these days.

But having had both a cup and a full tampon squirrel its way through my body (combo of post-partum vag shape and pelvic floor musculature health, maybe?), I'm not sure which was worse. The stem of the cup was painful and alarming, but squeezing out a full tampon feels disconcertingly like pooping. Neither one is good fun, but at least the cups don't smell and they make my cramps go away.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:13 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


I've actually thought that they really should make a reusable instead cup. I tried them years ago, and it was good (except for the one time I tried them during sex, when they spilled blood all over my partner, whoops) but the waste was alarming--far more so than a tampon. I know that their design is essentially the same as a diaphragm, and that for decades women used diaphragms for catching blood, but I couldn't find one when I wanted one for contraceptive purposes a few years ago, anyway. But the options for women with low cervices are pretty slim (the femmycup low is the only one marketed that way, and the reviews turned up an alarming number of women who found the cup suctioned to their cervix) and it seems like a diaphragm-type reusable cup would be a good option without the suction problems. I did find the instead more difficult to position correctly, though, since you had to essentially balance it behind your pubic bone.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:17 PM on July 7, 2016


This kind of thing has never appealed to me, but I'm also an ardent Mirena IUD person, so there is that. I'm on #3 so my last period was like, 10 years ago at this point. With the new healthcare law changes, it literally cost me zero dollars to get an IUD and it now costs me zero pink tax dollars to buy sanitary products and I spend approximately zero minutes thinking about any of this, so it's basically a 100% win for me.
posted by Medieval Maven at 12:18 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


in theory they're great and i think anyone who wants to use one should have free access to them asap, but for me personally they are the Worst Possible Solution. i definitely mention this in every diva cup thread but for reals, the thought of sticking my filthy nyc-subway-encrusted fingers into any part of my body without a good soapy scrub first is vile beyond imagining. most public restrooms do not have soap. the "solution" to this problem that diva cup enthusiasts insist will rid me of this horror is to just "carry soap" with me wherever i go, because carrying soap somehow less annoying than just carrying tampons, i guess? idk sis you do you.

plus the whole "how do i get this clotted blood and tissue chunk mess out from under my nails without a nail brush" thing, very annoying.

also the thought of rinsing it in potentially gross tap water and then putting it back inside me is similarly unspeakably vile. i lived for 8 years somewhere that had HUGE SHOUTING NOTICES in every public restroom that the local tap water was UNSAFE FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION, and, due to gross experiences in having taken baths in that water i can assure you that it is unsafe for vaginas as well. rinsing a diva cup in that water would lead to A Terrible Ooze That Burns While Itching.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:18 PM on July 7, 2016 [18 favorites]


There's a lot of talk here about public washrooms. I don't use generally use it in public washrooms. You can leave it in up to 12 hours, and hell you can probably even cheat by an hour or two if you want. I empty it in the morning when I wake up, sometime in the evening after I get home, and just before bed. I realize that not everyone can be sure to go less than 12 hours without being home every single time, but surely most people most days don't stay away more than 13 or 14 hours. And of course at home you can wash your hands, wash your cup etc. etc. in all the privacy and time you want.

So in conclusion: Sure it's kind of a pain in publish washrooms. Avoid using it in public washrooms.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:24 PM on July 7, 2016 [16 favorites]


I found them it less of a pain (and so much less expensive over time) than the OB tampons. I'm cheap and hated buying expensive boxes of cotton bullets every month. And those always leaked, always. This hardly ever does unless I really wait too long.

I deal with the messiness by only emptying them at home (tampons for long trips) and also by doing my emptying/rinsing/ putting back in in the shower when I can. It's just easier without clothes in the way and there's no worries about messes. But hey, I keep paper towels and 409 spray in my bathrooms as a general rule, so if I am clumsy and have to clean up, I do.

I never got to the Cup Master level of being able to empty/reinsert them in a public bathroom. I think I'd have to be a double-jointed yoga expert or something. Those stalls do not give you that kind of room.

You do have to keep your nails short, absolutely.

I would never ever dream of telling another woman she is doing her period wrong, if she has something that works for her, she should do it. Let us not period-shame each other. For example I use disposable liners sometimes. It would be more hippy granola of me to buy those reusable cloth kind, but I do not want bloody things in my clothes washer with the other clothes, nor do I want to do a separate wash. But other women don't mind, and that's great!
posted by emjaybee at 12:25 PM on July 7, 2016 [11 favorites]


Also, (sorry) my hands don't get bloody. I mean I'm touching the OUTSIDE of the cup. The outside of the cup is clean. The blood is on the inside. There's no blood under my nails because I have touched the outside of the cup which is not bloody, and parts of myself that were touching the outside of the cup and thus are also not bloody.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:26 PM on July 7, 2016 [9 favorites]


most public restrooms do not have soap.

I think that you are going to the wrong kinds of restrooms.

People in this thread have mentioned [pain], so it's probably a thing not to dismiss at this point.

It's not dismissive to point out that it doesn't happen for most women who use the a cup. Any more than it's dismissive to imply that it regular cup users are somehow just grinning and bearing through the pain (as others have done in this thread).

Like obviously, cups are not going to work for all women. Just like tampons don't work for all women (fun fact -- I didn't realize how bad tampons were for plumbing systems until well after I had made the cup switch), and pads don't work for all women. But the crazy fearmongering that comes up every. damn. time. anyone says nice things about the cup is part of what scares people away from trying it in the first place.

Personally, I don't care what any person chooses to do to handle their menstral flow (well, except freebleeding, because I prefer to live in a world where people don't brazenly display their bodily wastes). But the misinformation is frustrating, because the result is to scare women away from choices that could make their lives better.

It's kind of like how scary things I learned in health class about Dalkon Shield kept me from going the IUD route for far longer than they should have.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:29 PM on July 7, 2016 [7 favorites]


Probably tried every single menstrual product in existence over the course of my life (except for cloth pads because NO.) And there were times that a cup was great, and times that tampons were great, and times that pads were... well, not great but they did what I needed them to do. So everybody's gonna do what every body needs to do.

I just did the math and realized I spent 7.9 years of my life menstruating. Thank you, menopause. Thank you so very very very much.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 12:32 PM on July 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


Yeah, I didn't even realize that one wasn't supposed to flush tampons until I moved into a place with septic. The pain of finding a disposal place for tampons (not in public bathrooms, but mostly at friends/family member's homes) was definitely a factor in wanting to go back to cups.

On the other hand, my hands do get some blood on them when I empty my cup. It's no big deal to me to wipe them clean and then wash them. But I think a lot of this boils down to personal anatomy/flow differences.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:33 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


People are just sharing their experiences. It's not "crazy fearmongering." This isn't a campaign to defeat the menstrual cup.
posted by delight at 12:34 PM on July 7, 2016 [34 favorites]


(well, except freebleeding, because I prefer to live in a world where people don't brazenly display their bodily wastes).

nth this. it's made for a cool statement/set of photos. that's where my appreciation of free bleeding ends.
posted by cotton dress sock at 12:36 PM on July 7, 2016


I abso-fucking-lutely hate the menstrual cup. I have never really had any body shame, especially not about my vagina, but shoving things up there and yanking them back out is one of my least favorite things about having a body, period (ahem). I hated checking my IUD strings, I hate applicator-free tampons, I just fucking hate it. I feel like I'm going to have some vasovagal response and pass out every time.

It's also too fucking messy in public bathrooms and it is painful and makes it hard to piss, either because I suck at it (because I hate it!) or because my body is not fucking around.

Same with supposed "pain" of insertion -- even the "large" versions are smaller than any penis or insertable toy that I've seen

The vagina in a state of arousal is different from the vagina in a non-aroused state.

I think that you are going to the wrong kinds of restrooms

because we get to choose what kinds of public restrooms we have access to... ? Public bathrooms without toilet paper, paper towels, working sinks and soap are not uncommon.
posted by stoneandstar at 12:38 PM on July 7, 2016 [23 favorites]


not even sure people actually do free bleed, really. if they do, i'd rather they didn't around me. just putting that out there.
posted by cotton dress sock at 12:39 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


I do periodically (ha) fantasize about having a modern-day menstrual cabana with Netflix/good wifi and excellent snacks and every conceivable sort of bathing/washing contraption and a really comfortable toilet so I could just have my Heavy Day in peace, but I don't think that qualifies as freebleeding exactly.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:41 PM on July 7, 2016 [20 favorites]


i don't think people discussing their issues with the cup is crazy fearmongering.
posted by nadawi at 12:41 PM on July 7, 2016 [17 favorites]


I have been using a Diva Cup for over ten years, and have gone from being evangelical about it (although I never successfully got anyone I told about it to try it) to just being happy and grateful that it exists. I do remember poring over a LiveJournal menstrual cup support page for about a month before buying mine and also having some folding issues because I guess I'm just not naturally adept at wrangling silicone, but I have never had any real insertion, extraction, or leakage problems and consider myself lucky that it works for me.

Now that I am perimenopausal, I really have no idea when I'm going to bleed and my period tracker is just a confused liar now, I am also grateful that I have a product that won't hurt me (dry prophylactic tampons hurt!) or be wasteful and expensive (OK pads are not that expensive but they aren't cheap or free) to use when a maybe menstrual moment happens. And if it is a no flow mistake, all I have to do is clean my empty cup.

I do realize that some women have anatomical features that prevent them from being able to use a cup, and lots of valid reasons for eschewing the cup have been shared in this thread already, but I still think I have a little go team cup! in me and wish that it could have the same freeing effect it has on me for more women.

That being said, I was impressed when Orange is the New Black had a correctional facilities convention that had a menstrual cup display. I think it would be a great way for inmates to save money and there would never be feminine hygiene product shortages like they had this season, but even though it is fictional, I think it would be a difficult group to get on board the menstrual cup train... But it was cool that the producers thought about it and made a whole pretend display about it! (go team cup!)
posted by danabanana at 12:42 PM on July 7, 2016 [7 favorites]


Menstrual cups remind me a lot of cloth diapering - it's pretty fiddly and has a learning curve, but for the (subset) of people who make it through that process successfully, it has some nice advantages compared to the disposable alternative. How willing you are to go through that learning curve also probably depends on how annoying/awful you find the disposable alternative to be, though. Or people who just get really lucky and never experience any of the common user problems with the things.

As a person who tried and gave up on cloth diapers, I fully understand how irritating it is to say that something didn't work for me because of X, Y, and Z reasons and to be met with a "helpful" chorus of people who immediately try to start trouble-shooting each issue. I wasn't fully sold on trying cloth diapers in the first place and I totally resented the implication that disposables were so bad that I should spend all this energy trying to make cloth work for me, rather than reverting to the thing that worked totally fine and didn't require all this extra research and experimenting to maybe work.

On the other hand I hate tampons with the heat of a thousand suns and even though I don't love my DivaCup, it's so superior (for me) to the tampon alternative that I persevered through something like 12-18 months of "learning curve" (so many ruined pairs of underwear, so many uncomfortable stabbing-in-the-vagina moments) to get to the point where I can get the DivaCup to work 99% of the time, and I think it was still worth it. I try not to give tips to people who haven't had luck with menstrual cups, though, because I think it's easy to project my attitude of "oh hey tampons are the worst" even without meaning to and I totally understand how that would get other people's back up a bit. Also talking with other cup users (hi, phob!) has driven home to me how much one's internal topography really affects how successful you will be in using any given cup comfortably.
posted by iminurmefi at 12:43 PM on July 7, 2016 [13 favorites]


Mod note: Hello friends, I know we can have this conversation without it being some kind of ideological battle.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:44 PM on July 7, 2016 [13 favorites]


I bought one, back when there were only a couple of versions on the market. It would not expand and seal. Would not. I spent about 3 painful hours trying to get it in properly and never once managed it. I'm sure it's the wrong size, but it cost about $50 at the time, and it wasn't like I was going to keep experimenting at $50 a try.

At this point, I doubt I am flexible enough to use them anyway. Likely if I had been for years, and I could just pop one in, I still could, but I don't think I'd get past the learning curve.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:46 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


as long as there is no free bleed contingent, i think we're fine
posted by cotton dress sock at 12:46 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Realizing, actually, that my tolerance for the mess of tampons went way down when I quit flushing them, actually. Because once I started wrapping mine and then carrying them around in a (usually desperate) search for a suitable trash can, the tampon actually seemed messier to me. I can deal with my cup in one place, in one go, and have the blood gone in seconds. Once I stopped flushing tampons, not so much. But back when I flushed them, the mess aspect of tampons didn't bother me at all.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:47 PM on July 7, 2016


free bleeding is pretty much always protest/art project/not a choice/misogynists pretending to be feminists, so we can probably just let that topic go here.
posted by nadawi at 12:48 PM on July 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


I think people who free bleed do so only at the end, while spotting, so two layers of cloth catch everything.
posted by jeather at 12:51 PM on July 7, 2016


It may very well be my reluctance to dispose of tampons in any other place but the toilet that tips me over to attempting to try a cup for the remainder of my cursed period-having years.
posted by Kitteh at 12:52 PM on July 7, 2016


oh lol are people counting 'i'm so sick of sticking things in my cunt, i'm done enough, my lips will hold it in until i pee i'm sure' free bleeding? if so, free bleeding since '92!
posted by nadawi at 12:53 PM on July 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


Realizing, actually, that my tolerance for the mess of tampons went way down when I quit flushing them, actually.

Me too. I am of that generation that only found out relatively recently I wasn't supposed to flush them, feel terrible for not being more mindful, and really really do not like having them in the bathroom trash (which, previously having been mostly a place for discarded packaging, was clean enough to not have to empty often and I could even hand sort most of it into the recycling), and that has tipped me back to using my cup a little more often, especially if I'm going to be home most of the day anyway.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:54 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


It's distressing to realize how many people on delicate septic systems have no bathroom garbage can at all I'm looking at you, father-in-law.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:55 PM on July 7, 2016 [13 favorites]


Most public women's bathrooms have those little disposal boxes for used tampons, at least in the US. I generally wrap the hell out of them if I have to carry one elsewhere and stick it in my purse till I get a suitable disposal place. Protip: wrap them one more time in a fast food wrapper (or empty cup) and No One Will Know you're throwing a tampon away if you have to use a public trash can and are worried about a wad of toilet paper. Though honestly, the chances of anyone noticing or caring are very low.

I am astonished so many of you flush them. This is Very Bad for your water pipes, people, do not do this unless you like expensive plumber visits. Just use more toilet paper to wrap them if you are self-conscious or get a lidded trash can--they make cute little bathroom-sized ones.
posted by emjaybee at 12:58 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Meant to say: one good reason to fear the bathroom trash can is dogs, dogs who will dig things out and eat them. In which case you might want to put the can under the sink or something.
posted by emjaybee at 1:00 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Is it okay to flush the cottony bit (not the applicator) in toilets that don't run on septic systems?

(Real question: must I feel like I'm doing surgery on a monthly basis?)
posted by delight at 1:00 PM on July 7, 2016


I flush OB tampons. I know you're not supposed to (though I didn't always). I am a bad person, I guess. But I mostly use a cup these days, so there aren't that many OB tampons to flush anymore. Anyway, they've always flushed just fine and never caused a problem though people say they do sometimes.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:06 PM on July 7, 2016


I've used a cup for about six years - I think I might have actually heard of them on MeFi. I absolutely love it. Best thing ever for me.

I actually had to toss mine recently because I got a vaginal infection and I didn't want to risk reinfecting myself via the cup, and I didn't get my shit together in time to order a new one before my next period began. And I could not believe how many pads I went through. On my heaviest days I might have to empty the cup once in the morning, once midday, and once at night - other days, only morning and night. But I went through like six pads on my heaviest day, and they only managed to catch most-but-not-all of the blood, and worst of all, if I shifted in my chair I could smell the blood, which does not happen with a cup. (I didn't go for tampons because, for me, I'd have been running to the bathroom every 2 hours or risking Niagara Falls - if it doesn't make a seal inside there, some of the blood IS gonna come out.) I've already ordered my new cup and I'm never going back.

I totally get that many people genuinely can't use cups, or find them super uncomfortable, but I also think that some of the objections toward them come from not knowing how to use them correctly. (Of course no one is obligated to go to the trouble to learn this!) Like I've seen a lot of people who think they need to be washed before every insertion, or have to be removed as often as a tampon is removed, etc.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:08 PM on July 7, 2016 [11 favorites]


i flush because i rent and my town doesn't have ancient plumbing. when i own a home, i might choose differently.
posted by nadawi at 1:08 PM on July 7, 2016


I'm an oldster, and didn't get to try the more advanced cups. I always had a heavy flow for 2-4 days, and never got the hang of when it was time to empty - so it overflowed onto my clothes (heavy sigh - so many stained panties!!). Tampons were horrible for me, in that they too would leak, and on light days were painful to remove. I used pads for years, and became very aware of my sleeping habits on certain days (no back sleeping!). You know what? I don't miss any of it.
posted by dbmcd at 1:11 PM on July 7, 2016


I have vulvodynia and vaginismus and am totally converted to the instead softcups. I have a diva cup I've never successfully inserted that I think would hurt me anyways because it sits low. But even though the softcups hurt a bit going in and out, the fact that they only need to be changed every 12 to 24 (I know, not recommended) hours, the net result is so much less pain than tampons, pads or cloth pads. The only problem is that although they rarely leak, it can be catastrophic when they do. They do have somewhat reusable ones, where one cup lasts for a full cycle, then you throw it out.

I'm relieved to hear other people's tampons fall out. That usually just happens to me while running but it's the worst.
posted by carolr at 1:12 PM on July 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


i flush because i rent and my town doesn't have ancient plumbing.

They don't really decompose, and most sewer systems aren't designed for them. It's really not recommended to flush.
posted by suelac at 1:16 PM on July 7, 2016 [10 favorites]


I tried this- and my inability to get it out without the surrounding environment looking like the Carrie prom scene made me decide against it. One thing I do like is the disposable ones - they are good for sexytime at that time of month. Otherwise I'm a fan of the OB's.
posted by LuckyMonkey21 at 1:17 PM on July 7, 2016


If you haven't tried it, try it.

Especially if you have a heavy flow.

I like it because I don't have to tote around a purseful of feminine hygiene all the time. I will never "run out."

I like it because I no longer step out of the shower on my heavy days and bleed all over the floor and maybe stain the bathmat struggling with wet hands to get a tampon out of its wrapper, which used to happen nearly every goddamn month. Instead I can take it out, wash me, wash it, and reinsert it, all in the shower.

You know, like, sometimes you put a tampon in and it's seated wrong? And Tampax helpfully advises you to pull it out and try again with a fresh tampon? Never mind that they cost like fifty cents a pop? That doesn't matter with the cup. Take it out and put it back in 'til the cows come home, it's fine fun and will cost you nothing.

If you wash it in hot water, the heat helps with cramps.

I used to be grossed out by and a little afraid of menses and now am not. The first year I had it, I quickly stopped being appalled by myself and got pleased and fascinated that I could measure how impressively much I bled every month because, hilariously, the Diva cup has ounce lines marked on it. A couple of teaspoons, my ass, Tampax!

I've been using it... ten years? I guess? And have never had an embarrassing public restroom bloodyhands problem. And you don't have to wash it if you're not next to a sink. Remove, empty, re-insert, wipe blood off hands with TP, exit stall, wash hands. As it turns out, after high school most people just want to get out of the bathroom as quickly as possible, so they're not vulturing around looking for beta girls to torture for doing menstruation wrong. Nobody at the truck stop restroom is staring at your hands to check for blood.

Figuring out how to put it in and take it out took a couple of months for sure, but now is second nature (my one "hack" is that I bear down--both for removal and insertion), and it's easier than tampons to insert when not flowing heavily, or at all. This means you can put it in at the first sign of incipient flow and then forget about it--it's awesome. You don't have to think about your period all the time, is what this means. You barely have to think about your period at all, is what this means. You can't imagine how much you think about your period until you stop having to think about your period.

Camping, roadtrips, sleepovers at your buddies' houses, trips to other countries--all a billion times easier when you don't have to bring/acquire/figure out how to dispose of disposables.

I fully understand why cup partisans are annoying because for a million years everybody told me I should be using O.B. tampons. So sporty! So environmental! But I couldn't get O.B.s up high enough so they always hurt. Instead of shrugging their shoulders sympathetically, everybody proceeded to explain that I needed to "get comfortable" with "my body" and then I wouldn't need tampon applicators anymore. This caused me to want to burn and crash things. Either my fingers are too short or my vaginal canal is too long for me to be able to get them little bitches up there past the pelvic bone, and the fault is not with my psychology or my anatomy or with these beautifully applicator-free tampons, it's with YOU a-holes. People come in all different shapes, so shut up!

So if you tried it and it didn't work, I'm sorry and I offer you a sympathetic shrug, but if you haven't tried it, try it.

I was extremely dubious because of my O.B. experience and predicted that I would hate it and have wasted $40, but instead it's reduced my menstrual angst and suffering by like 70%.

One final exhortation. Try it.

Especially if you're getting on in years.

My most recent discovery: I used to be regular and now am not, which harbingers hilarious hijinx to come, but this thing means I don't have to worry about at least that one part of the rockettrip to the grave. I cannot imagine going through menopause (where apparently sometimes you don't bleed for months and then other times you bleed like Carrie every day for several months) with nothing but tampons and pads.
posted by Don Pepino at 1:24 PM on July 7, 2016 [16 favorites]


As it turns out, after high school most people just want to get out of the bathroom as quickly as possible, so they're not vulturing around looking for beta girls to torture for doing menstruation wrong.

Clearly you do not work in my office.
posted by palomar at 1:30 PM on July 7, 2016 [5 favorites]


I wanted the cup to work for me, I did, but a) concerted, dedicated effort to get it in on a test run when I wasn't on my period just did. not. work. no matter how I folded the damn thing and no matter what angle I tried, and b) my cunt is generally speaking, really tender and sore for the first three to four days of my period, and then after that, I'm in "only need a pantiliner/light pad" territory, so I'm one of the people for whom the cup is just too painful to be worth the trouble. I can't do tampons, I don't know why I thought a cup would magically work better. Oh right, peer pressure.

And like, congrats to those of you who can remove them without turning the bathroom into a murder scene, but some of us are not so skilled. Like, I wish I was, but just last week some alarming business with my pad and blood clots occurred in the bathroom, and yeah. Not fun.

Also does it count as freebleeding when you can feel that a torrent of blood wants to gush forth, and you just know said torrent will include gross clots, so you clench your vagina shut as best as possible (KEGELS) until you can make it to a bathroom where you can freebleed that shark week horror show into the toilet where it can be flushed away instead of sitting in your pad/ruining your underwear/overwhelming your tampon?
posted by yasaman at 1:31 PM on July 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


delight: "Is it okay to flush the cottony bit (not the applicator) in toilets that don't run on septic systems?"

As a rule, no. The cottony bit is perfect for getting caught on any roughness in the pipe going from your toilet to the sewer. And the cottony bit plus string can cause plugging of sewage lift pumps (and most city systems have lift pumps somewhere in the system). Sewage plants are of course designed to handle that kind of thing but nothing is 100% and it's pretty unpleasant to de-fiber a sewage pump.

Even new style plastic pipes get penetrated by tree roots that can snag tampons. Or a pipe cleaner can scar the pipe enough to catch them.

Don't flush wet wipes either.
posted by Mitheral at 1:33 PM on July 7, 2016 [9 favorites]


Wait, the plastic applicators I dispose of in the little bins in the bathroom. I just flush the cottony bit shoved up on in there.
posted by Kitteh at 1:33 PM on July 7, 2016


Like, I wish I was, but just last week some alarming business with my pad and blood clots occurred in the bathroom, and yeah

lol i was straight up amazed at how i managed to fuck up changing a tampon earlier today - both hands covered in blood and tiny round clots. luckily i was in my own bathroom.
posted by nadawi at 1:33 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


I have no interest in the cup for the same reason I do not wear contacts. First thing in the morning and last thing at night, I do not want to put my fingers in my eyes.
posted by maryr at 1:35 PM on July 7, 2016


Seriously, don't flush them. Not at all. Though apparently the tampon boxes are confusing on this point per that article. But either they clog your pipes or they end up in "the grinder" at the wastewater plant and then go into a landfill, just like they would have anyway. Only it takes a lot more energy/water to get them there. Sometimes they end up in the ocean or other bodies of water if the sewage system has problems. Pretty gross.

I know that one kind I used to use had cardboard applicators and they were supposed to be flushable--the thing unrolled and dissolved in water. I switched to OBs, despite disliking the messiness because I didn't like those but didn't want to use the plastic ones that would last forever.
posted by emjaybee at 1:35 PM on July 7, 2016 [7 favorites]


yeah, totally going to keep flushing. i understand all the arguments against. we all do things that are damaging and this is mine.
posted by nadawi at 1:38 PM on July 7, 2016 [7 favorites]


Well, here's a 101 question. Sometimes you need or want to know what's what, as far as blood qualities go. (Like IANA chemist or medical person, but I do have atypical PCOS, and have experienced the odd issue here and there - I feel it's not bad to have a rough sense of how things are going/looking, month to month.) With pads, you get a fresh-ish sample every few hours. With the cup, you have 12 hours of oxidization (maybe? yes?). So how easy/hard is it to tell what's what, if you're wanting to sort of pay attention? (I mean sort of pay half-assed attention. Not digging for gold in there, just want to be able to see if anything's really weird.)
posted by cotton dress sock at 1:44 PM on July 7, 2016


I liked the idea of the cup and gave it the old college try - no problems with blood (I mean I just read this entire thread while eating tacos...I'm fine), but as others have noted, any degree of vaginismus makes the experience uncomfortable. I ALWAYS felt it. Adjusted, turned, squoze, trimmed the stem...it didn't matter. Plus I have a wonky cervix that makes every gynecologist I've seen go, "What's up with the tilt?" When your anatomy is an actual moving target, it does not improve matters. More fiddling, squeezing, adjusting, etc. Still leaked. So I'm uncomfortable and leaking. No.

In the end I was frankly tired of having my hands WAY up in my own business so much of the time, so I quit. And I just don't have the energy for a fitting spree even if there are options for under $30 nowadays.

I've always wanted to try those reusable pads though. They're just pricey so I haven't pulled the trigger yet.
posted by angeline at 1:49 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


I honestly can't comprehend what I did for period control for eight whole years, especially since I've only used a handful of tampons in my life, but I got a Divacup in college per the evangelism of Livejournal friends and I've stuck with it for more than a decade. I don't know what I'd do without one. As far back as age 12 I can easily recall three separate traumatizing occasions where my pad leaked and ruined my clothing (and one mattress) without my realizing it. Hell, I used to sleep in a contorted position to keep my pad from leaking at night and I'd wake up the next morning with a killer backache. I even wrote about how much I hated it in my diary at the time.

I haven't had a spill like that since I switched to a cup. In fact, with a cup, I've never once had a problem with bloodsplosion, public restrooms, travel, swimming, sneezing too hard or leakage. Excluding my PMS every month, my period is a complete non-issue.

Gillette sent all the boys in my school Mach 3 razors on their 18th birthday. Some angel out there needs to start sending menstruating people one free Divacup.
posted by theraflu at 1:50 PM on July 7, 2016 [8 favorites]


I was pretty sure I had the perfect solution with the cup, once I got the hang of removing it.

But then I got another UTI. This keeps happening, and at the same time every month. Previously I rarely got UTIs. I just got one now, and I'm going to have to have another course of broad-spectrum antibiotics again that will make me feel like I got run over by a truck again, and I'm not in an especially good mood about this.

I looked this problem up online, and there's a bunch of "oh well you have to wash your hands properly". DUDE OF COURSE I WASH MY HANDS. Reactions like this send me on the fritz, because I've heard it all before when there was something wrong with a product.

I also wash the cup out every time I empty it. There was a lot of "don't wash it out with antibacterial soap!!!1!!!" which was my mistake the first time, and you can see how that would work, so, my mistake. Since then I've washed it out with Cetaphil.

And yes, before you say it, of course I boil it for 3 minutes at the end. Duh. I read the instructions.

also i have been toilet trained for some years now and am aware of the correct manner in which to wipe my own butt you don't have to keep explaining it to me

Because this keeps happening, and I keep having to have antibiotics for it, I'm thinking I might have to renounce the cup.

I just... find it hard to believe this ISN'T caused by the cup and it frustrates me that everyone else who has asked the same question has been told they're not clean enough.

I had the same problem as a teenager with contact lenses. In those days they used to put thiomersal in contact lens fluid, and my eyes would burn cherry red and ooze yellow pus. And I'd go to the optician and he'd give me another lesson in cleaning. I would have to clean, clean, clean until bits of skin started flaking off my hands, and he would keep saying "no, that is not clean. clean it again." And of course after a certain point it was never going to be clean because of the skin flaking off my hands from repeated cleaning.

They banned the thiomersal in the end, but it was still in the protein remover tablets you had to use once a week. Every time I used those I would get cherry-red eyes that wept pus, but I kept using them faithfully every 7 days, discarding the cases every 30 days on schedule. Opticians would look at my scarlet, pus-filled eyes and say, let's take a look at how you're cleaning them, and they would hold the case up to the light and curl their lip with disgust because the case would be cloudy and smeared with protein buildup even though I was doing everything as instructed, and they'd say, "well, THAT'S a good way to get an eye infection," and then they'd look at the lenses and say "well they are quite heavily deposited with protein, you really need to use the protein remover tablets."

Eventually they removed thiomersal from lens solutions altogether, and I stopped getting crusty red eyes oozing with yellow pus.

I guess this must have been because I somehow stopped being an unhygienic pig of a human being, because there couldn't have been one single thing wrong with the available products or the care I was getting.

And now I seem to have backslidden into being an unhygienic pig of a human being again. Because if it's something to do with the cup, nobody's gonna admit that.

p.s. 10 years later, when I was in a pilot study for a new kind of contact lens, the optician said "and be sure to rush straight to Moorfields Eye Hospital if you get cherry red burnt eyes that ooze crusty yellow pus, because that's serious". Gee, if only someone had mentioned that before in between admonishing me for being such an unhygienic pig.
posted by tel3path at 1:51 PM on July 7, 2016 [12 favorites]


tel3path I had the exact same kind of problem with hormonal birth control--mysterious yeast infections when I used it, none when I didn't. Lots of lectures about "cleanliness" and many people telling me it couldn't possibly be the pills, nobody got that reaction to them, I was on the lowest dose! Also I was probably exaggerating how angry and depressed they were making me!

So I went off them and strangely, all those symptoms went away. But I still get told I must have been imagining it. Fuck that.

Especially when it comes to women's bodies, medicine is still in the dark ages as far as I'm concerned. If you think the cup might give you UTIs definitely give it up for a while and see. Those are nothing to mess around with.
posted by emjaybee at 2:03 PM on July 7, 2016 [20 favorites]


I lurve lurve lurve the Divacup. I know it's not for everyone, but many people have never heard of such a thing so I go ahead and evangelize so that at least others might see if it for them. I lament the first 14 years I menstruated and didn't know of them.
posted by Capybara at 2:04 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


i barely got my frequent utis under control a couple years ago after a life long issue with them. it's one of the things that keeps me away from the cup. i'll still likely try it, but my bits are super sensitive to change and even masturbating 4 or 5 days in a row can cause issues.
posted by nadawi at 2:07 PM on July 7, 2016


And yes, before you say it, of course I boil it for 3 minutes at the end. Duh. I read the instructions.

Oh no wait - you have to take it out first. That's where I'm going wrong. Read every word, tel3path
posted by tel3path at 2:08 PM on July 7, 2016 [7 favorites]


So here's my random question for cup users: just how well does it stay put during extremely vigorous activities?

No, not that kind of vigorous activity; like gymnastics or ballet, stuff where you're bouncing around, hauling your leg up past your ear and other types of contortions.

I ask because back in the bunhead days I'd be compulsively stretching my hamstrings to make sure the megatampon wasn't leaking through to my pink tights and leotard.
posted by romakimmy at 2:10 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Once it's in there, it suctions on like the facehugger from Alien.
posted by tel3path at 2:11 PM on July 7, 2016 [9 favorites]


You can leave it in up to 12 hours, and hell you can probably even cheat by an hour or two if you want.

i mean? i don't think so? the last year of my period, which, i must remind everyone always and at all times, consisted of 3 60 day periods and one 110 day period, i was changing super plus tampons every other hour. i'd need the stanley cup, not the diva cup.
posted by poffin boffin at 2:14 PM on July 7, 2016 [24 favorites]


Yeah, you've got to bear down, twist, and pull simultaneously. Or bear down and hook a finger over the rim to break the suction. If it displaces when you dance and contort, it's likely the wrong size.

On the upside, I'm pretty sure the suction shortens my period by a day. I used to have spotting for at least four days at the end of my period, but now it ends rather abruptly after two heavy flow days.

Also, I can put in the Divacup a day or two before my period so that when I feel that telltale first cramp in the middle of my commute, I can rest easy that I'm not about to gush blood all over the bus seat.
posted by theraflu at 2:16 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


like, again, i really need to stress that I THINK ANYONE WHO CAN USE IT AND WISHES TO USE IT SHOULD USE IT AND SHOULD GET ONE FOR FREE AND IT'S GR8. idk why me saying "i am absolutely certain that it was not a good solution for me, personally, in my own personal vagina which belongs only to me and no one else" always gets me lectures about how i was wrong and obviously not using it right and just don't actually know what i'm talking about when i discuss my own vagina, the one that is inside my own body that none of you have any lifelong intimate knowledge of personally.

anyway lol forever @ u suckers who still have uteruses
posted by poffin boffin at 2:18 PM on July 7, 2016 [22 favorites]


Yeah, I think people should say if you're lucky you can leave it in for up to 12 hours. That's one of the big advantages - I never have to deal with any public bathroom-related awkwardness whatsoever, because I can always be at home at that time.

If you're less lucky in these matters, any gains will be negated by having to fiddle around in a public bathroom. Even the to-ing and fro-ing with having to pee first, then wash my hands, then go back into the toilet stall was an annoyance in my pre-cup days, so if I still had to do that I'd be like "why bother".
posted by tel3path at 2:20 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


This thread is making me long for women-o-pause. No more tampons bouncing merrily around my bag, able to pop out when I dig for a pen. No more terrified candy dishes hiding from me. No more waking up with an empty chip bag by my head, filled with salty shame , regret and bloating.

And the thing I am really looking forward to - no crying like a 5 year old whose ice cream cone dropped in the dirt at least once month. For no apparent sensible reason.
posted by LuckyMonkey21 at 2:20 PM on July 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


There is no way the amount of blood I bleed would fit in one of those. Also had the birth control yeast infections disbelief you describe, emjaybee. Everyone does what works for them and I detest period product shaming, or product IT'S THE ONLY WAY YOU DUMMIES kind of talk. I'm a pads gal and SO many women are hateful about that or preemptively keep me silent and pretending I use tampons because they act like that choice is oh so gross.
posted by agregoli at 2:23 PM on July 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


yeah, i'm on my 5th or 6th super tampon today and it's only been that few bc i have been sitting pretty much perfectly still all day except for bathroom trips. i can see a cup after day 4, maybe but before that i'm suspicious of it being able to hold it all on days 1-3.
posted by nadawi at 2:33 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I think I'm echoing what someone said above, but I love, love my divacup, empty it in the shower and even when I'm not in the shower, I use the shower to empty it, because it's so much easier to squat and push it out (yes, i keep it in 24 hours the other days). Maybe I'm lucky with my flow? I don't have to use outside bathrooms at all - in the rare case I had, I used lots of toilet paper to hold it, emptied it out and just stuck it back in to be washed when i get home and avoided the whole blood on the hands. I've used it for nearly a decade and it took a few months to get the hang of it!!! Although, I only started after experiencing childbirth - I'm not sure I would have known how to push before that.
posted by threesquare at 2:38 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Days 1-3 I empty it in the middle of the day, usually once but maybe twice. I don't know what I'm doing differently and/or how I'm shaped differently in comparison to people who have issues with it, but personally I have never had issues with removing it and getting blood on my hands.

I say all this not to get on anyone's case, but in case anyone reading this thread is thinking "I can't try this because it can't be emptied in a public bathroom without disaster occurring."
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:42 PM on July 7, 2016 [5 favorites]


Romakimmy, I use it when I have my period and I am doing ballet, and I've not had trouble. I do always make sure to empty it before getting into a leotard and tights (and I try not to wear pink tights because I'm paranoid), but I've never had it leak during ballet class. I have had it leak once or twice while hiking, though.
posted by ChuraChura at 2:43 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Realizing, actually, that my tolerance for the mess of tampons went way down when I quit flushing them, actually.

Is this the right thread to say that I absolutely hate those signs that say "Do not flush pads or tampons"? Because one of those things was considered totally okay to flush until a few years ago and the other would be like flushing a roll of paper towels or something. It's like a place where they want you to go barefoot posting a notice saying "Please don't wear shoes or poop on the floor."
posted by Ralston McTodd at 2:44 PM on July 7, 2016 [8 favorites]


Just in case anyone is reading this and considering trying a menstrual cup, the LJ menstrual cup forum is still active and has tons of advice... Good luck!
posted by danabanana at 2:49 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


I think that kind of sign comes from actual plumbing disasters, based on my experience in at least one workplace. I'm honestly surprised the signs don't say "Do not flush grocery bags and dog toys how did that even happen anyway?"

A couple of times I have had a pad jump ship as I was sitting down and the situation was such that I was not going to go in after it.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:50 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I looked this problem up online, and there's a bunch of "oh well you have to wash your hands properly". DUDE OF COURSE I WASH MY HANDS. Reactions like this send me on the fritz, because I've heard it all before when there was something wrong with a product.

This was me and the NuvaRing, but with bacterial vaginosis instead. My former gynecologist said, 'These don't cause BV, you must have not washed your hands.' I WASHED MY HANDS. I quit using the NuvaRing and have never had BV again.
posted by palindromic at 2:50 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I used Instead, and then eventually got a Diva cup.

Now I use an IUD and I am definitely a big fan (thanks, Mirena. and Obama, because it was covered!). As an aside, the UTIs I used to get quite regularly, to the point of keeping 100% cranberry juice in my house, my boyfriend's place, my office... I don't get em anymore. I can't even remember when the last one was it was so long ago.

The woman who installed it was great too-- I came in knowing I wanted an IUD, she said "yes it's great", I asked if she thought it might do anything regarding the stupid UTIs and she said "I don't think so, but it will change your chemistry somewhat so I'm not sure. Try it and see." (I do wish I'd been warned re: insertion pain, because OW. But that concentrated bit of pain is so much less than all the cramps and etc I would have had instead).
posted by nat at 2:51 PM on July 7, 2016


Yeah, 12 hours is a fairy tale. I guess I could leave it in for 12 hours on my heavy day if I were planning to spend the 12 hours crouched naked in the bath tub. I empty it every two hours for most of that day and every four hours or so the next day. It holds more than tampons but in my case it doesn't seal, so it leaks as much as did tampons, so as I did with tampons, I wear a pad to catch leaks.

Unless I'm going somewhere and would have to tote the used one around, I use reusable pads. Not because it's convenient but because it means I don't have to buy the bastards. I hate buying pads* because the daintiness packaging makes me desperate to punch some guy in the face. I get those overnight winged pads because they're usually ORANGE not pink and because they are as huge as possible so as to cover as much of my underwear as possible because MORONS! Why would I want it to be SMALLER? So I can pretend I don't bleed like a horse? I'm not seven years of age, fellas, I don't need you filling up the embarrassment aisle with stupid useless pink Holly Hobby bullshit.

*Except when I'm out of the country, and then I have a pad-buying freeforall. (I also get deodorant and toothpaste and shampoo and stuff because for my comfort and that of my guests I want my bathroom to be an English-free zone.) The last time I bought pads was in Turkey. When I got home and opened my suitcase crammed full of Parodontax and maxipads, I said, "My God, what is that bewitching fragrance!" Turns out they still scent their menstruation aids in Turkey.
posted by Don Pepino at 2:55 PM on July 7, 2016 [9 favorites]


Question: is there a toxic shock risk for menstrual cups? It seems like they would be infection city.
posted by delight at 2:55 PM on July 7, 2016


i mean the potential for my own blood on my hands is so wildly hilariously unimportant compared to the absolute certainty that i will get a flaming virulent yeast infection or BV changing a cup in a public restroom without soap to wash my already filthy disgusting "i've touched a thing in the subway and now i am carrying 14 different viruses including legionnaires and also prolly the clap on my hands" hands before touching myself or anything that's going back inside my vaj.

my own blood on my own clean hands is like, ugh, whatever, that's life, bfd. SUBWAY HANDS IN MY LADY GARDEN IS THE FUCKING OOZING ITCHPOCALYPSE. i envy all you indestructibly-cootered ladies with immune systems of steel who don't have to sandblast your hands with hibiclens to get the filth of your city off them before attempting any kind of object insertion but i will never be numbered amongst your ranks.
posted by poffin boffin at 2:55 PM on July 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


stop twatshaming my delicate fucking pH balance ok
posted by poffin boffin at 2:56 PM on July 7, 2016 [13 favorites]


Oh, also, re the hygiene thing and doctors not believing patients- I don't lie to physicians. I'm bad at lying and it's too much effort.

So when an eye doctor tried to push a new, complicated contact lens care system at me, I said "I don't want it, save your sample for someone else, I will never do this" -- she was so startled that anyone would just blatantly refuse that she made me sit there for another half hour while various people (including herself) came in to try to explain why it was really better and I should switch. I think the confrontation only ended when I eventually said "Would you like me to lie and tell you I'll use it? I'm not going to, many of your other patients aren't either, but if you need to be lied to to let me go, fine."

I think docs are really really used to patients not telling them the truth.
posted by nat at 2:58 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


I am exactly the type of hippie tree hugging woman who should love the cup, and I was so damn excited about it, and I had exclusively awful experiences with it from day one. It hurt to insert and remove, despite the fact that my vagina has, let's say, contained multitudes. I never had the "can't get it out" issue because the damn thing was trying to escape constantly, so I could feel it externally (I had to cut the stem off completely, or I would've poked holes in my undies). It definitely leaked, though inconsistently. Despite all this, I used it for years because damnit I am exactly the type of hippie tree hugging woman who should love the cup.

Put all this together, and I'm, like, really hostile toward cups. I'm glad other people love them, though. I'm also glad for the birth control pills that make my period virtually nonexistent these days.

I think I may have the thing in a drawer somewhere still? I should throw it out I guess.
posted by obfuscation at 3:09 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I had a friend in university who was gleefully convinced these were the next big thing. That was over 20 years ago. Linux on the desktop, anyone?
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 3:12 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Question: is there a toxic shock risk for menstrual cups? It seems like they would be infection city.

The reason tampons can cause toxic shock isn't just because they're holding stuff inside for longer. Since tampons absorb moisture rather than just catching it, they also wick moisture away from the walls of the vagina, drying them out. This can cause tiny tears in the vaginal walls, and then you're holding the tampon right up against them. That's not a problem with cups both because they're not absorbent, and because the blood sits inside them rather than being held against the vaginal walls (unless you're lying down I guess, but blood pools in the vagina at night when you're on your period anyway. I think the drying is the real problem.)
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:14 PM on July 7, 2016 [8 favorites]


TSS is actually sort of fascinating as a really specific confluence of circumstances, but yeah it's the absorbency that's the critical factor. You can get it from wound dressings anywhere on your body, as well.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:25 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


You can leave it in up to 12 hours

"up to" is important

on my heavy days, i'll have to empty it in a public bathroom, which is kind of a hassle.

when i'm doing fieldwork, this public bathroom is usually just a hole in the ground surrounded by a low wall; there is water but it's not necessarily clean and there is no soap and if i'm wearing pants by god is it tricky.

tampons have to be changed more frequently but are less of a hassle to change if i'm not at home. and their failure mode is less messy for sure.

i like my cup, but i find that this benefit isn't the main reason why i like it. i can really understand if for some women it is not a good enough reason to switch.

i think that it's really worth a try - and barring significant issues, it's worth giving it a try for more than one period. (it took me a couple to warm up to it.) but if it's not for you, it's not for you.

i don't know why we have to be so judgy about it.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 3:36 PM on July 7, 2016 [7 favorites]


I lived in a campus apartment with four other women in my junior year of college. One of my favorite memories is the time two of us started a conversation in the hallway about periods after my roommate had asked me for some tampons. We got onto the topic of menstrual cups. With neither of us having any experience with their usage, we speculated about the challenges of using a menstrual cup in a place where you didn't have access to running water or soap. Another roommate, who must've heard the conversation through her door, popped into the hallway and said, in the most commercial-for-Tampax voice ever, "Actually, it's pretty easy!" It was hilarious at the time, but maybe you just had to be there.

On another note, I've been meaning to try a Diva Cup or MoonCup for ages, but I have an IUD and I'm terrified that the suction cup action will pluck my copper coil right out of me.
posted by quadrant seasons at 3:38 PM on July 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


For capacity, I was going through about 6 super tampons a day my first few post partum cycles, sometimes more. I change the cup ~4x a day at the beginning of my cycle. And this is the smaller cup, turned inside out so the capacity is slightly reduced. They definitely hold more than tampons.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 3:42 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


On another note, I've been meaning to try a Diva Cup or MoonCup for ages, but I have an IUD and I'm terrified that the suction cup action will pluck my copper coil right out of me.

Hasn't happened to me. I don't think the cups can really generate the level of suction that would be required for this.

i don't know why we have to be so judgy about it.

I do!

1. Periods suck and dealing with them sucks.
2. For some people, cups work much much better and are much much more pleasant to use than tampons or pads.
3. Those women get super evangelical about it.
4. For other people, cups totally suck ass.
5. Those people are annoyed that someone pitched this fairly expensive product as omg-life-changing when it didn't work for them at all.
6. When they hear future evangelizing, they feel like they have to make it clear that this is not a solution that will work for everyone.
7. To the evangelizers, this sounds like an attempt to stop people from trying something that was really amazing for them and they get annoyed right back.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:50 PM on July 7, 2016 [18 favorites]


i was kind of irritated when i first tried one, and thought it wouldn't work for me. i had just spent $$ of my grad school budget on this, instead of something more fun like beer or something.

but then i thought about the overall cost against the cost of buying tampons over and over and over until menopause and it seemed like a reasonable gamble, even if it didn't work out.

luckily for me i gave it another shot and got more comfortable / used to it, so it wasn't a gamble i lost.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 4:13 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Some thoughts and fears around suction

(I mean, there's no follow-up, and who knows really. But still)
posted by cotton dress sock at 4:21 PM on July 7, 2016


Tel3path -- It probably is the cup. I got a terrible UTI the second month I used a cup, and I got a lovely lecture about how some women's anatomies just don't like rigid objects near the urethra. I've also gotten a UTI from sex, FWIW, so this isn't that much of a surprise.

I would have loved for the menstral cup to work. It would have saved me a lot of money and waste. But the medical downside doesn't make it worthwhile for me. YMMV, and a lot of women love it, but I really find evangelicism that doesn't mention UTIs to be problematic, if not downright dangerous.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 4:38 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


Omg I love my cup forever and ever! (And one of my first AskMes was about my cup and it started a boyzone metatalk in like 2003 funtimes!) I think I am a steel-cunted bathroom ninja though, because if I *am* in a a public bathroom, I just wash, go in the stall, pull & empty, shove it back in and then wipe off my fingers with TP (and go wash them again). In & out while seated.

But I totally get the omg shutupshutup thing because that is how I feel about IUDs. Like, I am pretty happy with how things are down there; I am not going to painfully insert some crazy shit — sorry doc.

Anyways, in the 70s, they did have home pumps and if I was an internet billionaire, I would be funding their resurgence instead wasting my money or space or whatever. Vag X.
posted by dame at 4:51 PM on July 7, 2016 [10 favorites]


Tried the cup. Did not like the cup. Have not tried the 2475638405 varieties of size and softness because who has time for that? (also I did not know that was a thing, you can still only get like three sizes in the UK). Have friends who are cup evangelists. One of them once set fire to her kitchen with one.

I did back that smart cup on kickstarter way back when because not knowing when it was time to change it was one of the things I didn't like about it, but it hasn't delivered yet and I'm not sure it ever will. That's ok.

Cloth pads are where it's at for me. May we all find the thing that works for us.
posted by corvine at 5:01 PM on July 7, 2016


i mean honestly let's just ban periods, why not just once a year like taxes

obama pls ban periods thank u
posted by poffin boffin at 5:10 PM on July 7, 2016 [20 favorites]


also I did not know that was a thing, you can still only get like three sizes in the UK

The brand with 72 varieties is from the UK. I believe there are only the two sizes at thebig chain drug store (same here), but if anyone thinks they need something other than those two sizes, lots of other kinds are available online. See the size chart of all the different brands and sizes to help figure out what might be best. The one I settled on isn't available to buy in Canada (apparently they're regulated as medical devices here, so each brand, size etc. has to go through separate regulatory procedures), but you can order online "for personal use."

I'm not suggesting that you in particular try something else if you don't want to. I'm more suggesting that if anyone would like to try a cup, it might be a good idea to investigate the different options/sizes etc. rather than just grabbing a diva cup at Shoppers or CVS. (I mean if it turns out a diva cup is the right choice for you, by all means buy it at CVS, but if that's not your optimal choice there's no point buying whatever's handy if it won't work for you).
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:12 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Btw, has anyone tried the FemmyCycle? It's completely different from both your standard menstrual cup and instead cups. I was tempted to give it a shot when I bought my new post-surgery cup, but it's just SO different? Also it looks like a pain/messy to empty. And even though the measurements suggest it's not that much bigger than other cups, it just looks intimidatingly huge.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:14 PM on July 7, 2016


With neither of us having any experience with their usage, we speculated about the challenges of using a menstrual cup in a place where you didn't have access to running water or soap.

I didn't use my cup in Ecuador because of this exactly. I wasn't ok with the idea that the water I was not supposed to be drinking was something I would have to use to rinse off a thing that was going into my vagina.

Other than that, I love my Keeper. Although now I kinda want to switch to a Diva Cup for the ounce measuring lines!
posted by chainsofreedom at 6:33 PM on July 7, 2016


Ladythings evangelists irritate the snot out of me. IF MY VAGINA WANTS YOUR OPINION IT WILL ASK FOR IT.

My own personal cup experience is fantastic. I use the Insteads -- I use one per menstrual cycle, I don't throw them out after 12 hours or whatever. The reason I keep using them even though they are disposable is that I can empty them without taking them out. Every time I pee, I bear down and it sort of squish-inverts and empties into the toilet, and then I kegel real hard and it snaps back behind my pubic bone and there you go! Once a day, in the shower, I take it out and rinse it out and huck it back up there. But yeah, no blood on my fingers, no horrifying bathroom water, no nothing. Those cups held me through three miscarriages, even, they were a godsend.

Of course now I have an IUD so I get one real period a year, if that. So at this rate, the last box of Insteads I bought (I think they are called SoftCups now?) will last me until menopause.
posted by KathrynT at 6:34 PM on July 7, 2016 [9 favorites]


Omg KathrynT you're some kind of vaginal magician! You should do shows!
posted by obfuscation at 6:38 PM on July 7, 2016 [19 favorites]


I haven't had a period due to birth control in years, but Insteads were great. I fear they must no longer exist (where are you getting them, KathrynT? I haven't seen any in a store in forever), but they held all the blood AND I didn't have to publicly deal with that in public. Having one in made me feel like I wasn't on the rag, and the duration went for longer, which was great. My gyno wants me to go on something else for BC but all the options would probably give me periods again, and I don't. wanna. Especially if Insteads aren't an option.

Much as the idea of the cup is great, (a) I do not want to deal with such a thing in a public restroom, (b) I do not want to stagger out of a public restroom stall covered in blood to clean my little cup, (c) that's also assuming I can get back into the stall to put it back right away rather than wait in another line to get back into the toilet, right? and (d) I honestly just don't want to be washing my hands and look over and see another woman covered in blood washing her cup out in public. T. M. I.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:38 PM on July 7, 2016


See the size chart of all the different brands and sizes to help figure out what might be best.

I'm honestly pretty baffled about how that size chart is really supposed to help. I don't know how many millimeters wide my vagina is, nor do I have any way of determining how many millimeters wide my vagina is. So, I guess I could try to figure out which one I tried, and look for others that are smaller than it is, but how much smaller? Who knows.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:44 PM on July 7, 2016


nadawi and everyone else who's mentioned UTIs: Oh, yes. Totally. I got my first UTI back in the day, the first time I had PIV sex. Now I can get UTIs any old time, it seems -- if I'm under stress, if I haven't peed frequently enough that day, if I've worn close-fitting trousers ... You get the picture.

So the second day of my period, when I have the (TMI) heaviest flow and thus the least friction, is the only day I can use my lovely cup (a nice flexible Swedish one!) without risking a 10-day course of antibiotics, washed down with cranberry juice.

But I did find some great locally made bamboo terrycloth pads for the other days of my cycle. So there's that. Sigh.
posted by virago at 6:45 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm a convert. I have never had success with tampons. Pads smell because the blood is exposed to air. Plus, I once heard a woman describe her cup as "the Devil's shot glass" and it cracks me up every time I think of it.
posted by domo at 6:55 PM on July 7, 2016 [8 favorites]


. So, I guess I could try to figure out which one I tried, and look for others that are smaller than it is, but how much smaller? Who knows.

That's basically what I did. My issue was length, so I could see how long the diva cup was, see how long the others are and I used a tape measure to figure "ok, it's this much shorter..." I erred a little on the side of shortness because I figured a little too short would be ok.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:06 PM on July 7, 2016


1. Periods suck and dealing with them sucks.
2. For some people, cups work much much better and are much much more pleasant to use than tampons or pads.
3. Those women get super evangelical about it.
4. For other people, cups totally suck ass.
5. Those people are annoyed that someone pitched this fairly expensive product as omg-life-changing when it didn't work for them at all.
6. When they hear future evangelizing, they feel like they have to make it clear that this is not a solution that will work for everyone.
7. To the evangelizers, this sounds like an attempt to stop people from trying something that was really amazing for them and they get annoyed right back.


If you remove #1, this also happens in every conversation about vibrators ever.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:07 PM on July 7, 2016


Menstrual cups don't have suction. They're not sucking air out of your vagina. They just form a seal (which is generally easy to break). They're held in place by the pelvic floor muscles, not by suction. They don't cause TSS because they don't absorb. There's so much misinformation here in the comments.

"Test runs" of cups (trying it out when you are not on your period) will NEVER work as easily as when you are on your period. Your cervix can be very high in your vagina when you're not menstruating, which means your cup will be able to get further up, and it may be extremely difficult to remove it then. Your cervix generally sits low during your period and when the cup is correctly placed below the cervix, it doesn't easily move out of place. The position of your cervix can also affect how well the cup works for you (if your cervix is very low and the cup is placed above it, which is easy to do without noticing if you aren't used to cups, it will leak).

Since I started using cups, I find both pads and tampons intolerable, super gross, smelly, and super gross.

Basically, menstruating is terrible no matter what. But I really really enjoy it when I empty my cup in a toilet then forget to flush, and the next person to use the toilet is a cis-man. The horror I imagine they feel on seeing a toilet full of blood makes me laugh with feminist glee.
posted by a strong female character at 7:29 PM on July 7, 2016 [8 favorites]


Menstrual cups don't have suction.

From the patent:

Around the upper or open end of the cup are two annular strengthening ribs 2, 3 spaced from each other vertically on the outside of the cup. The upper rib 2 is exactly at the top of the cup and the lower one 3 is spaced a little distance below. The upper rib is somewhat larger than the lower rib. One function of these ribs is to provide resilience tending to expand the upper end of the cup to its open position or to maintain it in that position. In the space between the two ribs, I provide cross-connected lines or ridges forming enclosed recesses or depressions 4 which act as suction cups when pressed into the membrane lining of the vaginal canal 5. It will be seen from Fig. 2 of the drawings that the ribs are rounded so as not to cut the membrane of the canal. The band formed by the ribs and the suction cups between them form a hollowed-out or concave fillet around the upper edge of the cup.
posted by cotton dress sock at 7:38 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I mean what could it mean to "just form a seal"? How?
posted by cotton dress sock at 7:41 PM on July 7, 2016


Metafilter :steel-cunted bathroom ninja

I wish I was!!!!
posted by LuckyMonkey21 at 7:43 PM on July 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


The "suction" doesn't hold it in place. Your pelvic floor muscles do. Almost all brands of cups have anti-suction holes towards the top that prevents suction from occurring during insertion/removal. The "omg it sucks onto your cervix!" comments are way out of proportion to what it actually does.

http://menstrual-cups.livejournal.com/2091967.html

I'm done.
posted by a strong female character at 8:06 PM on July 7, 2016


Menstrual cups don't have suction. They're not sucking air out of your vagina. They just form a seal (which is generally easy to break).

and yet actual vagina-possessing people right here in this thread are saying that in their personal vaginal experience, they have had trouble getting it out once it's in! because of the difficulty they had in breaking the suctiony seal! "someone's personal experiences differed from my own" is not "misinformation," for fuck's sake. spoiler alert: human bodies have a vast wealth of difference between them, and just because something is perfect for person A does not mean that it is perfect for person B, even when they have the same internal organ in question.

~*tmyk*~
posted by poffin boffin at 8:07 PM on July 7, 2016 [9 favorites]


Also, because I mentioned public restrooms being a pain with the cup:

One way to deal with this is to have a plastic water bottle -- the squeezy kind, with a nozzle -- filled with clean water. Take it in with you, use it to rinse your cup/hands if necessary.

I still don't like to deal with it, so I usually don't wear a cup if I think I will have to change it during the day, but you don't have to use the bathroom sink.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 8:08 PM on July 7, 2016


wait wait what if i mod a nerf gun to shoot diva cups and also kegel up until i can shoot the old one out of my vaj before shooting the new one in
posted by poffin boffin at 8:13 PM on July 7, 2016 [4 favorites]


The "suction" doesn't hold it in place.

There is actual suction, physics still apply in vaginas.
posted by cotton dress sock at 8:14 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Sure, you do that.
posted by a strong female character at 8:15 PM on July 7, 2016


wait wait what if i mod a nerf gun to shoot diva cups and also kegel up until i can shoot the old one out of my vaj before shooting the new one in

The Applicator 5000
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:15 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Cotton dress sock: it is actually possible to form seals without suction. A plastic lid on a Tupperware isn't suctioned on.
posted by a strong female character at 8:15 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


The worst part is that if women had been in charge from the beginning, science would have advanced enough that none of us would have to have periods anymore.

Think about that next time you cram something into your undies or ladybits to stem the crimson tide.
posted by emjaybee at 8:16 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Mod note: Take it down a notch, folks.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 8:18 PM on July 7, 2016


You could try the Tupperware idea and see how that goes. Maybe I'll have a try with some Sticky Tack.
posted by cotton dress sock at 8:32 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


So I googled the tassette and was interested to find that the tassaway was designed to address many of the concerns expressed here: getting your hands messy and reusing something that's been up there and all of that. There was even a weird applicator device.

Supposedly they were flushable, but I kinda doubt it.

(This website is generally an amazing stash of cup knowledge, including some brands that let you empty while inserted.)
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:34 PM on July 7, 2016


Omg that Tassaway contraption. It is like a folder + catapult. You would definitely seem lowkey taking that into the bathroom.
posted by dame at 9:55 PM on July 7, 2016


I find both pads and tampons intolerable, super gross, smelly, and super gross

Thanks for the weird-ass judgment? Women are not used to hearing that their vaginas & discharge are smelly and super gross so that's very appropriate of you.

Seriously, we get it, you fucking love menustrual cups.
posted by stoneandstar at 10:37 PM on July 7, 2016 [9 favorites]


Also, that Livejournal post literally says that there is suction that people need to relieve (which leads to problems when it is not easily done), so not sure what that proves.
posted by stoneandstar at 10:39 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


Go team controlled bleed
posted by cotton dress sock at 10:53 PM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Thanks for the weird-ass judgment? Women are not used to hearing that their vaginas & discharge are smelly and super gross so that's very appropriate of you.

Seriously, we get it, you fucking love menustrual cups.


. . . to be fair, plenty of people have been saying that aspects of cup use are "gross" in this here very thread. I think it's fair to just mentally append "for me" to the end of just about anything regarding menstrual products.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:56 PM on July 7, 2016 [14 favorites]


I just want a vaginal vacuum. I feel like a compressor with a little tube up there- like the thingy they use at the dentist to get the spit out . As far as I know, there is nothing out there that makes you have the blasted thing any quicker.

Imagine a world ladies, where Shark Week starts on Wed- you have the date hotness planned for Sat.Whatever shall I do? He hasn't gotten his red wings yet!

Vag-O-Matic to the rescue! Part bidet, part roomba, it folds into itself when not being used for the rest of the month. Drain goes directly into the loo. Since it has a water component, also self cleans as it drains. Period done in one day.
posted by LuckyMonkey21 at 11:28 PM on July 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


This thread makes me vaguely interested in a menstrual cup. (am kind of turned off by all the arguing but whatever)

The thing is, I do everything I can, birth control wise, to avoid having periods entirely, and I'm not certain a cup is worth it for the remainder of the time.

But whenever I do get around to having a period again I'll maybe look into it...
posted by Cozybee at 11:45 PM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


I feel like I've been exposed to the judgy menstrual brigade all my post-online menstruating life. I am a pad user - and they work very well for me because I have very light yet painful periods and the last thing I want to do at that time of the month is fiddle around with my vulva. Far better to spend five seconds sticking a pad on my underwear and not think about it.

I did try tampons - I wanted to be able to go swimming when I wanted - and ended up yelping in pain on the bathroom floor, thinking "How can that cartoon thirteen-year-old in the instructions manage it? I'm years older!" (Somehow, I sense the cup is not a product I'd be comfortable with - literally.)

Almost every discussion about menstrual products I've seen treats pads as the baby-steps product ("It's like wearing a nappy, ugh") that only prudes who aren't comfortable with their body use. Many women seem genuinely surprised that anyone would use them (uh, why do they think they're still sold in stores? Someone's buying them and it's not just me) - I even saw a discussion where some women would turn them down even if it was their only option for temporarily containing their flow. And not because pads didn't work for them - no, I saw the "it's like wearing a nappy" line trotted out. Even here I'm hearing "They smell bad". Great, thanks. I needed something else to worry about. I know I'm doing what works for me; I assume everyone else tries to manage their periods in the way that's best for them.
posted by Rissa at 1:10 AM on July 8, 2016 [5 favorites]


Steady-state strawberry and everyone else, thank you, it's good to know I'm not the only one.

I'm not ready to give up just yet, though. I used that comparison chart to hunt down the smallest and hopefully softest cup available. I have to admit, the 40mm cup I've been using does seem awful big to me, and does give me a wretched *full* feeling throughout my entire abdomen at times (depending also on what stage of digestion I'm at) and so I managed to find one slightly smaller (one of the MeLuna soft models) and hopefully soft enough so I'll see how that goes.

Because yeah if it weren't for the NASTY THREATENING INFECTIONS THAT REQUIRE NUCLEAR ANTIBIOTICS DESPITE BEING RELATIVELY TRIVIAL the cup I had would've been perfect. I don't have to carry anything, I don't have to deal with it more than twice a day, I don't have to monkey around with public bathroom logistics, I don't have to keep an inventory topped up, and despite th discomfort mentioned above I can only barely feel it most of the time. It took a couple of cycles to get the knack of removing it but it was worth the effort.

No, the only issue I've had is the NASTY THREATENING INFECTIONS THAT REQUIRE NUCLEAR ANTIBIOTICS DESPITE BEING RELATIVELY TRIVIAL because we can't have nice things.
posted by tel3path at 1:26 AM on July 8, 2016


I think cups are a wonderful invention - even if they probably aren't for me. And I agree that it's worth getting out there for more people to try and also to not be afraid of trying it. Unless of course you really feel like it won't work for you. And of course money and marketing is behind the expensive tampon and pad industry. (I'm in marketing and don't see it as "bad" but of course a company wants to make money and disposable products guarantee that.)

And I agree that there should be some better outreach and education along with the cup so that those wanting to use it don't try it once - mess it up - and never go back if they could be a good cup-user.

All that said, I doubt a cup will be for me. I too have had a very bad past with UTIs and had to change lots of things (only water soluble lubes, more water, no period sex, etc.)

Plus, maybe I'm a disgusting TMI period monster, but shit, there's gotta be other people like me.

My blood is full of mucus. There, I said it. In addition to not wanting to tempt UTIs, I also don't want to sit there while mucus filled blood takes its sweet dandy time like honey running out of a menstrual cup when I empty it. I would age 20 years waiting for that. (And I wouldn't be able to rinse it in a shower because I can't shower.) Yuck.

Anyone else? Just me? Who knows...

So, if it's for you - GREAT! But I don't think the bullying angle that many people take toward cups and reusable pads will help any women move toward them. Don't shame anyone about how they decide they want to handle their period. For me, pads and tampons are fine. Fun? No. Fine, yes.
posted by Crystalinne at 1:44 AM on July 8, 2016 [3 favorites]


This is a fascinating thread, thank you menstruaters of mefi. I appreciate it.

I had never heard of any reusable menstrual products until college (thank you Meredith!). Turns out, cloth pads are pretty comfortable. Way more comfortable than plastic disposable ones. I've used a diva cup here and there, but I'm lazy and like my cloth pads.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 5:58 AM on July 8, 2016 [2 favorites]


I guess the way people feel about cup-evangelizers is pretty much the same way I felt about the culture around tampons, and how anybody who used pads was a silly baby who couldn't get out of diapers and was clearly not a Modern Woman Who Had Her Shit Together. Tampons don't work for me - I've tried every variation from the kind that you get out of bathroom vending machines to OBs, but they all had clear tendencies to shoot out of me...or almost worse, half out of me, at inopportune moments. While the cup hasn't been a complete success because I tend to sleep late and then rush through a shower and don't take the time to seat it properly, it's made my life a lot better. I don't think I've cornered anybody to talk about it being my new lord and savior, although my sister got a few fun (?) texts when I was trying the thing out for the first time, and I did talk to a curious friend about it once. I'm glad I found out about it, though, because it's made things a lot easier and I don't go through nearly as many pads as I used to.
posted by PussKillian at 6:30 AM on July 8, 2016 [3 favorites]


Yes! OMG! I'm sorry for the TMI, all, but Crystalinne you are not alone. Over the past year or so I've noticed this interesting "boi-yoy-yoy-yooooing" stretchy quality about the lighter-days menstrual fluid. It takes longer to fall out of the cup, and I have to pay close attn. or it becomes a cloth-seeking missile.

I can see why the cups could cause UTIs, too, totally. I have definitely noted that it is occasionally harder to pee with the cup in because depending where it is, it can compress the urethra. People who are susceptible to UTI probably shouldn't wear something that smashes the urethra. Maybe one of the softer ones would work better, but I can for sure understand not taking the gamble, and I've only had one UTI. I would rather have a weeklong migraine than a fuggin UTI.

I love this thread and I hope it endures for eternity. I'm totally trying Instead to see if I turn out to be a no-touch kegel superhero like KathrynT.
posted by Don Pepino at 7:29 AM on July 8, 2016 [2 favorites]


Crystalinne, my blood is similar. I use a piece of TP to wipe the cup clean and generally have to do a little clean-up on the heavier days. It's still a better solution for me than tampons, though.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:37 AM on July 8, 2016


For those talking about a period vacuum, when I was a teenager I found a 1970s copy of Our Bodies Ourselves at a flea market and remember it had a section that talked about a device that does exactly that. I think they called it a menstrual extractor? It was in there along with having your own speculum, as a piece of radical self-care equipment that could also be used to perform very early abortions if necessary.
posted by apricot at 7:55 AM on July 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


And here it is: Menstrual Extraction.
posted by apricot at 7:57 AM on July 8, 2016 [3 favorites]


Btw, has anyone tried the FemmyCycle?

That's the cup I use. It's my first and only cup, and the learning curve was huge for getting it positioned correctly, but after 8 months I really like it. I really love the looped stem and the anti-spill lip, and couldn't imagine going without those features. Size hasn't been a problem; it is very soft.
posted by Gordafarin at 8:07 AM on July 8, 2016


For people who love it, great. For me, who uses 12 regular OB tampons per cycle, it's not necessary. My sister also gave it the ol' college try and found it to be too troublesome to be worth the bother. It seems to be the Little Miss Muffett of menstrual products--when it's good, it's really really good, but one false move and now you've created a biohazard/ruined clothing/God knows what.

I think those period panties look pretty good though.
posted by Autumnheart at 8:39 AM on July 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


And here it is: Menstrual Extraction.

...huh.

I kinda want one.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:50 AM on July 8, 2016


Maybe in another 50 years, it'll be mainstream too. /snort

Ladies of STEM, can we encourage you to get started on this? Key performance indicators: portable, easy to clean, bacteria-inhibiting, affordable. Go. 3.5 billion women await your brilliance.
posted by Autumnheart at 9:00 AM on July 8, 2016 [3 favorites]


what's that??? oh, everyone's body is different and some things work for some women and not for others? and it working for me doesn't mean it will work for you? and something NOT working for me doesn't make me OR ANYONE ELSE wrong?

oh
wow
i thought
wait
posted by listen, lady at 9:21 AM on July 8, 2016


I tried the Keeper when if was the only cup available and promptly discovered I was allergic to latex. They had a return policy them which was A+ excellent because I would've been very upset, as a broke student, to spend so much money only to make myself incredibly sick.

When the Diva Cup came on the market, I got one right away and have used it consistently since. Well, fairly consistently. I carry tampons in case I'm caught off guard and I use cloth pads when my cramps are such that I I don't want any extra pressure in my pelvic area. Recently, I got old and had to switch to the bigger size cup, which very quickly solved the problem with leaking I'd briefly been having. Yay.

If it doesn't work for you, I believe you. The Keeper didn't work for me and that was... eventful. And there are lots of reasons why something might not work. And we have major problems with medical professionals and ordinary folk not believing people with uteruses when we talk about our pain. I believe you! But pads and tampons are taught in sex ed class, are so much more aggressively marketed and are available in every North American grocery store. They're normalized in a way cups aren't. I originally learned about cups in a niche feminist magazine and everyone I talked to about them -- not to convert, but to find or if anyone had tried them -- thought they sounded disgusting, horrible, backward... Most people who menstruate will have tried tampons and pads... but not cups. So I think it's really ok to be forgiving of cup evangelists... their (our) beloved solution just doesn't have the uptake other solutions do. Even now it's not uncommon for people to have not heard of it, not know anyone who uses them, and to respond negatively to the very idea. For a lot of (but not all) people who menstruate, it's a great solution, and I think it's much better for people to have to say no, not for me, than to never hear about the possibility at all.
posted by bibliotropic at 9:33 AM on July 8, 2016 [5 favorites]


(where are you getting them, KathrynT? I haven't seen any in a store in forever)

Like, Safeway? And Bartell's I think, too. And Amazon! The packaging changed so I could no longer pattern-match off that weird lilac box, but they are out there.
posted by KathrynT at 10:55 AM on July 8, 2016


Go. 3.5 billion women await your brilliance.

3.5 billion men prevent funding.
posted by maryr at 11:15 AM on July 8, 2016 [3 favorites]


F&*&(& the 3.5 billion men. I'm STEM adjacent and been looking for the killer app. Imma look into it at least. It will give me something to do while waiting for women-o-pause.
posted by LuckyMonkey21 at 12:01 PM on July 8, 2016 [3 favorites]


I bet the best place to launch some sort of Period Vacuum Clinic would be NYC or LA, someplace you could both charge a premium for it and get a lot of press.
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:02 PM on July 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


(where are you getting them, KathrynT? I haven't seen any in a store in forever)


CVS carries them now as well! I think I've mostly seen the 12-hour disposable ones there, but not always the ones that you can reuse throughout your whole period.

(I use and love them, and can also do the emptying move described. But to each their own/you know your body/how best to manage things)
posted by damayanti at 12:06 PM on July 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


showbiz_liz - I live in Portlandia- home of the wacky tech idea. Prototypes here and then an excuse to go to NYC.
posted by LuckyMonkey21 at 12:25 PM on July 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


(where are you getting them, KathrynT? I haven't seen any in a store in forever)

In my area the only place that stocks them anymore is Walgreens. (Places that used to, but do not any more: CVS, Target, Stop and Shop.) I can also do the trick where I empty the Instead cups without removing them, and it is wonderfully convenient.
posted by pemberkins at 3:13 PM on July 8, 2016 [2 favorites]


"they are priced and sized in a way that would make them a good target for shoplifting" -- the bookstore at the college where I work carries Diva Cups, but they keep them in a locked case behind the front counter for that very reason.

I'm a big fan of the Instead/Softcups, although I haven't been able to find the reusable ones anywhere in a while. Locally they're at the Fred Meyer and at the high-end independent grocery store near me.

FWIW, I find I generally have to empty them about half as often as I would've had to change tampons. So on a heavy day, maybe once every 4-6 hours? I have had a couple of overflow accidents, which is very junior-high-feeling, but I've gotten to know what that feels like when it's about to happen so I can get to the bathroom!

I initially thought softcups would be something to try for a little bit as an experiment on the way to getting a "real" cup, but the research process for cups is so daunting, and the softcups are so simple.... Although with all the info here I might actually take another look.
posted by epersonae at 3:22 PM on July 8, 2016 [2 favorites]


Stumbled across this magnificent goddess of menstruation (or something) on Tumblr, and thought, hey, I know where this needs to go.
posted by emjaybee at 5:31 PM on July 8, 2016 [2 favorites]


CVS carries them now as well! I think I've mostly seen the 12-hour disposable ones there, but not always the ones that you can reuse throughout your whole period.

I use the 12-hour disposable ones, but I use them through my whole period. I found the testing data online where they showed how there was basically no bacterial growth on them even after days and days, and figured what the heck. I've never had a problem.
posted by KathrynT at 6:16 PM on July 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


I bought my first Keeper in 2000, back when they were latex. It was supposed to be good for 10 years, but I noticed cracks in it after 6 years. I bought the silicone one to replace it, and it's still working well after 10 years. I totally love mine, and will be a faithful cup user for the 10-15 years I have until The Change. YMMV. :)

I've had to empty one out in a porta potty several times, and the process was much easer once I started bringing wet wipes. The only worry I have is that I'll accidentally drop it and lose it forever.
posted by luckynerd at 6:20 PM on July 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


I love my Blossom cup!

Perimenopause means my bits get up to all kinds of shenanigans. It took a bit to get the hang of, but damn, has it made life easier! Public restrooms have never been a concern - a former exchange student and a veteran Rennie, I never leave the house without a pack of baby wipes. Dumping the cup 2 or 3 times a day is much more preferable than changing a tampon every 2 hours, especially when it's day 13 and no end in sight. It isn't for everyone, but it's perfect for me, and it paid for itself FAST.

Almost-DIL was crabbing the other night about dealing with Satan's Waterfall, and Elder Monster piped up "Mom uses a cup thingy." All of the women present wanted to know about it, so I ran up to the bathroom to fetch it. We talked about folding, the odd little pop when it opens, and using water based lube when learning to use it. I hope it works well for my Monsterettes!
posted by MissySedai at 7:14 PM on July 8, 2016 [5 favorites]


jenfullmoon: I do not want to stagger out of a public restroom stall covered in blood to clean my little cup

Huh. Why not? I love that part. You should see the looks on people's faces.
I'm kidding of course. But that doesn't actually happen. I'm never covered in blood, and I don't need to clean it under the tap every time I empty it. I can just stay where I am, tip it and reinsert it, use some toilet paper to clean my hands, and done = done.

I love my cup. I know cups don't work for everyone. But I'd be happier if we could stick with stuff that's actually real, like the people who have tried cups and know they don't work for them. I'd also be happier if we could, now and then, think of the fact that some of those who menstruate are men. Just a small reminder.

The main reason I love my cup is the fact that it brought my cramps down by 80%. That's a very personal, non-transferrable reason. Makes me happy, though. I think that's one thing we can agree on: menstrual cramps are the pits.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:19 AM on July 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


angeline, if you want thoughts on cloth pads, let me know. :-)
posted by Ms Vegetable at 7:21 AM on July 9, 2016


I have questions about cloth pads! Tell me about them!
posted by jeather at 9:17 AM on July 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


oh gosh Ms Vegetable can you tell me where I can get a cloth pad that will not ride backward as I walk? I tried one from Gladrags and some random Etsy seller and they ended up square on the back of my ass, catching nothing at all.

(on topic: first tried a cup in college, couldn't get the hang of it, ditched it, recently bought a Keeper and figured out how to get it right and it is the best thing. Especially because my birth control implant apparently gives me my period twice a month.)
posted by Alioth at 11:36 AM on July 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


My favorite pads are Mimi's Dreams and New Moons. I have some other brands, but those two are hands down my favorite. Very, very comfy, and decently priced for what you get. (There's at least one other brand I like that I can think of off the top of my head, but they're too expensive to justify more.)

Mimi's Dreams: You can select the fabric and size you want. My preferred are the maxi pads 10 inch. These are great for day and do not move around on me. They have two snap options on each wing, so you can adjust for different underwear gussets if you want. I think the twitter or facebook has coupons sometimes. Do be aware that if you order custom pads, it can take 6ish weeks to get to you. You can also select different absorbencies; I think I just have the regular absorbency. I've had some for 8+ years that are juuuuust starting to wear out. The owner is Hope. These also fold very compactly for putting in a pocket.

New Moon: I prefer the "Full Moon" and "Sleeper" pads and mostly just wear these for overnight. Yes, they are huge. I do not care because I DON'T LEAK WITH THEM!!!!! Remember ruining sheets in high school? Yeah not with these suckers! They do wiggle more than the Mimi's Dreams, but I haven't had any problems with it, possibly because I purposely choose the very long ones. If you sign up for the mailing list, Renee (owner) frequently sends out coupons/sale notices. I think I've had these 5+ years, still going strong.

For all of my cloth pads, I wash in regular laundry. I don't soak, I just let them dry out first so they don't stink up the hamper. They usually get tossed in with jeans and other heavyweight darks that dry, washed on cold, machine dry low.

I have no link or interest in these businesses, I just like the pads I have.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 12:42 PM on July 9, 2016 [4 favorites]


AHHHH thanks for the info, Ms. Vegetable! I am looking at Mimi's Dreams right now!
posted by angeline at 11:48 PM on July 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yes, the menstrual cup helps with cramps, but it also helps when I use my vibrator to help with cramps.
Oh, and it makes anal during this time a little easier. :)
posted by sallybethdraper at 11:53 AM on July 29, 2016


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