Menstrual Cups

I have a diva cup and love it.
I could never use tampons they give me terrible cramps. .. I don't get cramps from my cup(not that I don't still get cramps ) .
Its not messy AT ALL which I feared,and my period seems shorter..thats pretty freaking awesome.

 

tampons always gave me the stink too. ick.

 

well, it seems like theres alot of positive feedback, i will look into it. the fact that its a cup that fills up kinda freaks me out though. but i will consider.

 

Guess I'll have to give it a shot. Is there any sort of coupon that I can get a free one to try? I don't want to put out a lot of money for a bunch of things I might end up not liking at all.

 

Its around 30 bucks and they have a return policy if you don't like it.
It is expensive that 1st one-but it pays for itself when it lasts YEARS instead of having to buy pad/tampons every month

 

I've used a gum rubber Keeper, Diva Cup, and Lunette. The keeper wasn't a very pleasant experience, and it wasn't long before I developed an allergy to it and also got tons of horrid yeast infections whenever I used it. So I switched to the smaller sized Diva Cup because at the time that was the only available silicone cup, and used that for a few years... I never really got 100% comfy with it, but it was still way better than disposables. It just nearly pulled my cervix out with it when I took it out, constantly poked me, and usually leaked a little which was annoying. I finally gave up on it a few months ago and switched to a regular sized Lunette. I chose the Lunette to try next because of the flat floppy tab, since the tab of the Diva (even when cut) constantly irritated me... I like HAVING a tab anyway to keep it from sliding sideways. Well the Lunette turned out to be just enough shorter, but wider, and holds more, so it ended up PERFECT for me. It is so much more comfy, I barely feel it, it holds way more for way longer and once I got insertion down (it's a little different to put in than Diva) I have had almost no leaks whatsoever. Amazing. I am still having difficulty not letting the suction tug on my cervix a bit on removal, but it is WAY better than the Diva ever was in that respect. I just can't seem to get my finger far up enough to hook it on the rim of the cup and break the seal before I pull it down. I'm still working on finding a way to get it out without tugging on my cervix, because thanks to the Diva's suction, I started to have a bit of cervical prolapse issues. Yeah, that can happen. It is VERY minor and I am told I can correct it by working the kegels, and I've bought weights to do that with.... if I can't suceed in fixing it I will go to the doc... so.. yeah... my main warning to anyone using cups is to be sure you do everything you can not to let the suction pull your cervix down anymore than you have to because over time it can cause prolapse if you do it too much. (I didn't realize this, and was not careful at all)

 

This is very good information to have. Thank you a lot, lilyrayne!
Not everything that smells like a rose is a rose, it's a good thing someone could tell about it.
(Not that they're always bad, but just about everything on the market can have a side effect.)

 

I cut the tail COMPLETELY off of mine- but it does sometimes still irritate -- I wonder if it would be possible for it to be shorter ,sometimes.I have never had much suction with mine- but I have heard people say it can be bad

 

yeah, the tail does irritate me as well, so i've pretty much cut mine off too. the moon cup one is softer than the diva cup one, and isn't AS bad. but yeah.

 

i am still confused about this cervical suction.

 

yeah me too... i've never experienced this. not to mention, cervical prolapse means the cervix is OUTSIDE the vagina and vulva. i'm highly doubting this happens with removal of a menstrual cup, as i can't imagine it causing enough suction to actually pull the cervix OUT of the body, unless there was something going on with the lady parts to begin with. lilyrayne, was this a diagnosis by a doctor, or something you feel is happening and hasn't been diagnosed? i'm just trying to get a better picture of what your situation is.

 

Prolapsing OUTSIDE the vagina, like hanging out, is the very severest form of cervical prolapse. Cervical prolapse is actually normally not outside, except in the worst cases... it ranges anywhere from just a little lower than normal for that person to all the way down to the opening. If it actually goes past the opening, it's very very serious. The most minor prolaspe is just where it sorta "hangs low" but not really far from where it's "supposed" to me. Minor prolapse is actually very common among those who have strained a lot, most notably women who have given birth. It is easily corrected by exercising the kegel muscles so that it starts a chain reaction of strengthening other vaginal muscles all the way up, to hold the cervix up where it belongs.

I know I have very minor prolapse because I began to notice I could not get my cup all the way in... when I felt around to figure out why, I could feel that my cervix was much lower than it used to be. This combined with odd pain that I'd been having the prior 2 months, that I found out later is common with the start of a cervix prolapsing, kinda explained it. It's just common sense. (This is why it's important to know your insides - if I didn't know exactly where my cervix normally was, I wouldn't have known it had dropped down beyond where it should). I called my Gyno and talked to her over the phone and she tried to get me to come in as they all do, but when I explained i had no way of getting to her office for weeks, she finally relented and agreed that it sounded like I was probably right, especially after I explained about the suction with the cups.

See, you're supposed to break the seal before you pull it out, and as I said in my last post, I have the worst time doing that, so I just pulled it out without breaking the seal, pain be damned. Keep in mind I did this one week a month for nearly 6 years. That is why it caused minor prolapse, because it was done for so long, that I did to my cervix what many women do in childbirth. For 2 months, I've been workin the kegels with vaginal weights, and my problem is already correcting itself. Thank goodness!

Here is a REALLY good website to learn about prolapse of the cervix/uterus... there are several pages, but it is informative without being overwhelming with the terminology and such. http://www.emedicinehealth.com/prolapsed_uterus/article_em.htm

As you will see, many things can cause various degrees of prolapse... even just being overweight and coughing too hard. So logically, a menstrual cup with good suction constantly tugging on your female insides every time you remove it could do the same thing.

Let me stress that a single or just a few incidents of pulling too hard with the suction of a cup wouldn't cause prolapse... It would have to be continuous over time as in my case (remember, 6 entire years of one week every single month of tugging on my insides very hard with the suction instead of properly breaking the seal... and that only caused MINOR prolapse that is being corrected. So when it comes to prolapse from a cup, it's not a huge concern... but it is something to be careful of and the reason for trying your best to break the seal if you can before removing, just to be on the safe side.)

Hope that helps

 

I don't see HOW you could know for sure without an exam.-- there are certain times of the month- and my cycle that my cervix is very low- always has been long before I had a kid or used any internal fem hygine product.

 

I examined myself. I've been using cups for a total of 9 years (the first 3 were with the keeper and that wasn't really a suction issue), as well as other alternative things... I started to feel as much of my insides as I could and got to know my body. So by the time the prolapsed happened, I knew every inch of my insides and what was normal, at any given time of the month. You are right, the cervix does drop lower than normal at that time of the month. However, mine was lower than normal during ALL phases... it was lower when I didn't have my period and even lower when I did. That means at it's worst, during my period, my cervix made it's way to about less than an inch from the opening. It was pretty bad and if you know your body well and take care of it and learn it, you don't need an exam by a doctor to know when something isn't right.

 

wow, thanks for the information. i guess my cup never created enough suction to pull on it at all.

hopefully everything works out well for you... sounds like it's at least getting better.

 

I Just ordered the Diva Cup!
Soo stoked to get it..
after reading the posts kinda wish i
would have tried the moon cup
but maybe it will be okay with my
body....I got a gladrag too
Im just excited to make this
change to help my moma earth!

 

ive been considering getting one of these for a few months now,, but the idea of things being inside me freak me out (i use pads)

 

I was a tampon girl, I wouldn’t use anything else. Then last June I went to Glastonbury festival like I do every year & while in the green futures field I saw the moon cup stall. There was this woman there selling mooncups & explaining all about them. She made it sound so amazing I bought one without any hesitation & because I bought one there I got it for £15 instead of the usual £20.

I’ve been using it ever since & it is amazing. I will never ever go back to tampons. It took 2-3 months to adjust to it. Slowly cutting down the tip because it irritated me. I ended up cutting it off completely because I noticed I didn’t even use it to pull it out.

what I really love about the moon cup is that my periods are slightly shorter, my period pains aren’t half as bad as what they were when I used tampons, I can see exactly how much blood I’m loosing, I don’t get dry up there which used to make inserting tampons painful & also making sex painful. I’m saving money & the environment. The risk of toxic shock syndrome is less than what it is with tampons. Also, I can wear white trousers & skirts without the risk of leaking & getting blood all over which I could never do with tampons.

The mooncup is will last for many many years if cared for correctly. I don’t need any special cleaners to clean it, 5 mins boiled in a pan & it’s done. Every time I remove it I give it a clean & then insert it again. The only time I will have to replace it is when I turn 30y/o or if I have a child before I’m 30y/o.

The mooncup is now saving me from embarrassment. The number of times I’ve had friends round to my home & my cat decides to ferret around in my bag. You can be sure he would pull out the first tampon he could find & start playing with it on the floor in front of my fiends. No tampons = no embarrassment. Having the mooncup means I don’t have to carry tampons about or having to dash to the store to buy them because I have suddenly come on.

The other thing, something that you can’t really do with tampons. I never knew exactly when I was going to come on. My period can come early by a few days or can be late by a couple of days, with the mooncup I can insert it before I’m due on so I don’t get caught out & ruin my clothes.

I don’t know if there is a supplier of the mooncup in the US, but on the UK website it says this

Advance warning: from 1st February 2009 we will no longer supply Mooncups to customers with a delivery address in the USA.

 

so those of you who have/use them, would defo reccommend them?

 

i defo recomend them. with the mooncup, you can try it for 3 months & if you dont like it after that then you can return it & get your money back. they do ask you to try it for atleast 3 months because it can take a little time learning how to getting it in & out right. after the first month i had sussed it & i love my mooncup now. i will never ever go back to tampons.

below is the official site

http://www.mooncup.co.uk

& you can buy them cheaper from this site, they also suply to the US unlike the official site

http://http://www.freedomfromtampons.co.uk/

also smelly D, you can buy them in Boots now. they started stocking htem due to high demand.