THIS SECTION WILL HAVE PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT PERIODS. If that makes you uncomfortable, just skip it.
A while back I did a post on different options to manage menstral blood, and came across something called the moon cup, or diva cup. It's a reusable silicone cup that is inserted into the vagina to collect menstral blood, that can be emptied, cleaned and reused. Because they DON'T cause toxic shock syndrome, a cup can be left in for up to 12 hours, though if you're a heavy bleeder its recommended that you empty it more often than that.
Well, I bought one this past month and just spent a week using it. AND I LOVED IT.
I HATE tampons. That weird feeling you get, that fibrousness is just *shudders*. It's like touching wet wool only on the inside. Super uncomfortable, but sometimes you have to use them. Like swimming or wearing tight clothes etc... and yet despite being discreet I found that they weren't always perfectly absorbent, even on light flow days. Pads have always been my reluctant primary choice but I hated them too. It felt too much like wearing a diaper, and the damn things shift locations no matter how carefully you apply them. So for both pads and tampons, there's the inevitable fear of leaking, and that sense that everyone can smell you.
So I bought my cup a few days before my expected period and read the little booklet on how to use and what to do with it and waited. Day one of the period comes and it's time to try this little sucker out. Folds into itself super easy, the instructions come with a how to guide and I'm pretty keen so I figure it out quick. Then I slide it in and...wait a second, that feels odd. Not painful, but weird. I can feel the little bottom section as I walk around. However, that sensation disappears as I get used to it. And that was it folks. No pain, no discomfort and absolutely NO LEAKAGE.
There was only one time I had any leaking and that was when I inserted it wrong and it never formed it's seal. My bad, not the cup. I know what that feels like now so I can adjust if it happens again.
I put this thing through the ringer to test it too. I work out, doing weights and combat fighting, and usually I hate my period week for working out because of the discomfort. Tampons SUCK when you're doing exercises that engage the pelvic floor, as you can push a tampon out if you've been doing your kegels. Trust me, it's happened a time or two. And pads are just WILDLY uncomfortable when you're doing jump kicks and squats. The diva cup however, I never once had a problem with, and I expected to. I could feel it a little bit when I was engaging my core in some of the moves, but I suspect that was due to me looking for awareness of it. I never had discomfort, never felt it was gonig to dislodge or anything and had no leaking. It was great.
I also had two unexpected bonuses from the diva cup. It seemed to help eas my cramping, though that might just have been me making a correlation error. And I never once felt like I smelled like I was on my period.
So yes, you have to get comfortable with your vagina to use the diva cup. You're literally pushing a silicone cup into your vagina and then hacing to reach back in there to pinch the bottom and pull it back out to empty it. But it's not hard to do, and it's not uncomfortable at all. And the piece of mind about NOT getting Toxic Shock.... in my opinion it's worht the $40.
It might sound expensive, $40 for a single silicone cup, but think about it. A box of decent tampons is what, $4-8 depending on the brand. A pack of pads is usually around the same. So say you buy a box of each, every 2 months. That's $8-16, so let's split the difference and call it $12. 12x6= 72. So one cup is almost HALF as expensive as the non reusable options. And that's not including the cost of replacing any panties that get destroyed when the less effective options leak through. So it ends up being a lot cheaper to use the cup, and it's better for both your body and the environment.
So for those with menstral cycles to deal with and who care about my opinion, this product gets both thumbs up and a satisfied grin from me.
