Four months ago, Justin sent me this link. First, I thought… hmm interesting, how did you even hear about this? Turns out it’s a (male) friend of his who sent him the link in the first place… boys these days….
At first my face was going through all sorts of confused expressions. What the heck is the Diva Cup? Then I understand, but I’m still a little confused. And then it clicks. Brilliant!!!
It’s been three months I haven’t used any tampons or pads at all during my menstrual cycles. Amazing!
I feel like I am doing a favor to the earth by not buying and throwing away products that I’m sure are hard or impossible to recycle. Instead, I empty a silicone cup, wash it and use it again. It totally changed my menstrual life and believe it or not, I actually look forward to it every month.
(Please stop reading if you don’t want to get more details)
Here are some observations I’ve made during these three months:
1) I need to “change” a lot less and therefore “plan” a lot less.
Before, I knew I needed about 4-6 tampons a day on my 2 heaviest days and a “super plus” tampon for night time if I didn’t want to get up in the middle of the night and change.
Now, I “empty” twice, maybe 3 times a day. Morning – When I come back from work – Before I go to bed.
2) Practical facts:
– I actually don’t need to hide any tampons in my pants or bring my purse to the public bathroom. I’m totally “period incognito”!
– I don’t have to worry about where the string is placed to avoid it getting caught in my underwear and make me walk funny (do you ladies have that problem too?)
– It doesn’t leak.
– It doesn’t smell
– It doesn’t suck out the moisture of my inners.
3) Horrific but fascinating fact:
When you empty the cup in the toilet, well, you see blood. I didn’t realize how unsettling it was to see my own blood in a liquid form versus imbibed in a high-tech absorbent fabric. At first, I went “ughhh” and then I went “woaaaa”. Every time I would “empty” it, I would be amazed at witnessing what my body is able to create. I mean it totally looks like you’ve killed something and want to hide the evidence. It’s actually pretty funny!
I have a weird sense of humor sometimes.
Anyways ladies, I recommend it. I use it. I love it. You should try it!
Great review, with lots of practical information that answers all the pertinent questions. It’s enough to make one want to go back to menstruating. Well, no, actually it’s not. Viva la menopause! But thanks for actually answering the kind of questions one might have about it!
There’s something else similar called Instead but they’re not re-useable and therefore continue to pollute the environment. This one sounds interesting.
Ohmygoodness…I think it’s great that you posted about this! (and I think it’s very brave of Justin to be talking about it on his blog too) I just bought the DivaCup last month and I LOVE it! It’s kind of changing my “menstrual life”. (: I had a lot of worries about it at first…it would leak, it would feel weird or hurt or be hard to insert…but none of that came to be. After reading about the various menstrual cups out there, I’m glad I finally got myself one. (Saw it on the shelf at my local grocery store, Olivers…they rock!)
There are several livejournal communities dedicated to the diva cup and other similar menstrual products for those curious about it: http://community.livejournal.com/divacup and http://community.livejournal.com/menstrual_cups are a couple of really good ones.
Thank you ladies! This is such an essential part of a woman’s life that I really felt like I needed to share my experience.
Pamela — I didn’t know about “Instead”, looks pretty cool, but I really like the re-usable functionality that the Diva Cup has. Less trash ;-)
Kat — thanks for those links! Sounds like a lot of women having issues with it is due to a too deep insertion. It’s totally different than inserting a tampon and it sounds like some women still try to stick it way up there…. takes some training!
Totally glad that you’re on board too! I’m sure there are a lot more women we know that actually use it already, and we don’t know it because, well, it’s not part of regular conversations ;-)
I have considered this. The thing that has held me back is that I’m not convinced it won’t leak. So you say it doesn’t? Interesting ….
I want to know how you’re supposed to get that thing in and not have it poke out too much. or feel funny while sitting. Remember those reusable ones, similar to this that had a ring and a plastic-like sac? Those seemed much easier to get in, except still weird. How could you get it OUT is the question without the plastic sac not spilling!
This is too funny, I love how you freely talk about this sort of stuff. Whats next?
Hi Ladies,
So it seems like it leaking or it getting stuck is a concern…
Leaking: it doesn’t leak. Or at least not for me… It takes a little bit of practice to get it in and feel like it’s in the right spot, but it’s not that hard. I actually tried that with some lubricant when I was not on my period yet. I didn’t want to get it wrong and get it messy.
Learning how heavy your flow is also can help prevent leaking. If you leave it on for too long and fill it up, it could unseal the cup.
Get it stuck: Never happened to me yet. It doesn’t get inserted like a tampon. It sits at the very beginning of your cavity, not way up there. It’s far enough that you don’t feel it when you sit or move around, but close enough that you can grab it easily with two fingers without “reaching”.
Also, its little end tip helps to grab it. I actually had to trim it a little because I felt like for the cup to feel in the right place, it needed to be a little bit shorter. And it works out just fine :-)
Fascinating. My friend’s mom is a sex educator, and she got some samples of Instead in the mail before it went on the market. We used one as a cat toy and broke the other over her gearshift, but we NEVER considered using them because of the potential for mess on removal. Your environmental argument for this product is very interesting to me, though. I’ll think about it…
That was the name for it, INSTEAD! Anyway, this does seem pretty interesting. Never thought of actually trying this out before the actual period just as a testing phase. Just may do so, I hate periods in general.
[…] is a common French name referring to a woman’s menstrual cycle (yes, I’m talking about this again) and it has a slight “annoyed” sound to it. Try saying it with a bit of a frown and it […]
Hey, was thinking of you because I got one of these this week — would NEVER have known about it were it not for your blog — and it arrived just in time :-) So far, so good.
Haha! Pamela, so glad to hear! :)
Your posting was the last deciding point to buy the cup. Thank you !! Last year I chance upon bye comp through a outdoor internetshop. I wounderd about this, becaus I never heard about it. Now I am a realy happy owner of the cup. It’s great to use it during running, skiing … And one fantastic thing is to use it during visiting a sauna. In germany every body is naked – men and woman – and i haven’t be afraid about the blue string ;-)) geatings
Geli – thanks for the comment! I’m so glad this works out for you… another woman helping the planet and feeling good about her feminine monthly cycle. Gotta say, I can’t imagine the sauna situation, but… awesome!
;-)))))…. first of all..who is Gotta ?? .. This english word i didn’t heard befor ,-))… ok – now i found it i a dictionary internetsite. Thank God for internet !!
Germans like sauna. In the last years, were build a lot of great centers. There you can visit a lot of different saunas wiht differnt temperature and humidity. Most of them have nice themed names like “rose sauna” – “herbal sauna” ..and so on. They pouring water over heated rock with different smell.
At home in our basment we also have a little sauna. But we like to visit the great sauna-center. If you are curiously have a klick on wwww.therme-erding.de – its close to munich an they claim to be the greates sauna-area in Europe. Yes – and of course – every body is naked. Two years ago we traveled to whistler mounten for skiing. In the hotel there was a little sauna – and every body inside donned swimwear. The people didn’t use any kind of towel – and every body was sweating on the wooden seats in the sauna…. terrible ;-))). In the bathing cabin, there was a woman which was able to chage her clothes without showing only one inch of naked skin. I belive she was realy shocked as i striped before her eyes ;-)). Tell me if I am wrong, but we are a more swinging. ( is this the right word ??? ) … ok.. but in Italy is the same thing with sauna as in USA or Canada ! In countrys i didn’t had the chance for sauna. I hope my english is halfway ok for explaning the sauna problem ;-))… bye and greatings from overseas.