Question about a GIRLY product.. proceed with caution

the thing that keeps me away from it is the heavy flow.. when my oldest was five months old i skipped a period - i freaked out, yes.. big time.. - but when the next month rolled around my period surprised me.. no i was EXPECTING it.. but i was NOT expecting it to make up for lost time.. i was in the mall with my mom and grandmother looking for dresses to wear to my brother's wedding... i had a normal tampon with me.. which was a joke... i ruined my pants, and thankfully the seats in my grandmothers car were pleather... and i had  a jacket with me to tie around my waist while in the store.  i used that as an excuse to buy some new Levi's though but.. yeah that was my nightmare come true... being in a public place and bleeding all over myself...

since that day my period is HORRIBLY heavy the first couple of days, then it goes normal then gone... is it like that for everyone after having babies or what?!?!?!

i WISH i could get the BC to stop my period.... i asked about that when i was in high school.. the doctor wasnt the most easy to talk to. when i mentioned BC and the period stopping kind she gave me this "Yeah right.. you're kidding.." kind of look. and being the meek little high schooler that i was i didnt press the issue. i wasnt sexually active then anyway, i just didnt want a freakin period!! 

It would take a lot to make a reusable menstrual cup overflow. They're pretty...spacious. I know ladies that it feels like we are loosing pints and pints of blood, but in actual fact you loose only between 1-4 tablespoons of blood per cycle. Not per day, per period. The reusable menstrual cups can easily hold 2 tbl. Of course that 1-4 tablespoons is an average so your mileage may vary, but it would be highly unlikely for you to be loosing over 2 tbl. of blood in 12 hours (most users change/empty their cups twice a day).

I use a Divacup and it's great.   It's much more comfortable and convenient than disposable products.   They're also much better at handling heavy flow and it's awesome that you can insert them in anticipation of your period rather than having to wait until you're actually bleeding.  I guess they're not good for the squeamish, but I think being well-acquainted with the body is very healthy and useful.   Menstrual cups also give women more information about their cycle, such as being able to monitor how much matter they lose.  There's a learning curve to using them, but many women get the hang of it right away and never have bloody hands or anything - just take the cup out and dump the contents in the toilet.  

Re: infections - like someone else pointed out, menstrual cups present a very low risk of infection because latex and silicone do not provide good surfaces for bacteria to grow.    Tampons and pads on the other hand are pretty much ideal environments for bacteria to thrive.  Plus, you rinse/wash the cup as often as you want, you can boil silicone cups, disinfect them with vinegar and water, tea tree oil and water, etc.   You can't disinfect your tampon, you don't disinfect your Nuva-ring, your condoms or your partner's parts :)   So if your concern is safety, compare them to the other stuff you put up there and feel comfortable with.  Many women report fewer infections and less irritation when switching to menstrual cups because the chemicals and mechanisms of tampons and disposable pads can be unhealthy.

As for the suggestion to use disposables:   it might be useful for you, but disposable cups like Instead are very different than reusable products like Keeper, Divacup, Mooncup, etc.   Liking or having problems with Instead isn't necessarily and indication that you'll like or have problems with a reusable cup.   Also, a lot of women choose reusable products because they find disposables wasteful, so a reusable product kind of misses the point.

I know a lot of people like putting them in in the shower, but I have to say that for me it doesn't work for the same reason shower sex is better in theory than practice:   water washes away important fluids.   So that's something to think about.   You can use lube to insert, just make sure it's latex or silicone-friendly lube such as Astroglide.   If you have trouble with insertion there are all kinds of different folds you can try to help. 

Divacup has a really good return policy if you buy from their site.   I'm not sure what other brands' return policies are, but you're not necessarily out $35 if it doesn't work for you.
 

calliecritturs

They had something like that out about 25 years ago that I tried --  

Actually, they had  these things out longer than that.  I can remember my mom getting some for us to try.  I found it extremely uncomfortable - in fact it was downright painful. I couldn't wait to get it out.

Joyce

 i dont know if our local stores will have them or not.. not exactly convenient to go checking around in all of them just yet.. i may end up ordering from the website instead.

my friend is getting hers today. she's going to tell me how it works out for her lol

tell you what though, as for bloody fingers and all.... with my period i'm damned if i do and damned if i dont lol tampons just dont cut it... even the super blue whale size only work for a couple of hours..

lol i know its supposed to only be a small amount of blood but i swear sometimes... the saying "bleeding like a stuck pig" doesnt even come close lol 

Janet808

...I'd rather use a pad, or tampon and discard!  Who wants blood all over their hands, toilet seat, floor, sink, etc....

Janet, I swear, that's all I could think of when I was reading the website.

micksmom

Janet808

...I'd rather use a pad, or tampon and discard!  Who wants blood all over their hands, toilet seat, floor, sink, etc....

 

Janet, I swear, that's all I could think of when I was reading the website.

I swear y'all it is not that bad! The only time I ever had "murder scene" problems was with the reusable Instead Cups because they are so freakin shallow. Never ever a problem with my Keeper.  A little blood on a couple fingers? Yes, but you'll have that with a tampon too unless you're ultra-diligent. And that is why they put sinks and soap in bathrooms.

Normally, I stay out of these "girly stuff" threads.  However, since I have a certain amount of experience, dare I say, expertise, with the product in question, I feel duty bound to share with the rest of you.

I saw those cup thingys in Walmart a couple of years ago. At the time, I had been dealing with a bad case of diarrhea for several days. It occured to me that one of those menstural cups might provide me with a level of security beyond that of the Depends I was forced to wear. I had tried corks but I kept blowing them out with such force that I was afraid I would kill someone . I will just say, the cup thing wasn't one of my better ideas. The damned thing swelled up like a water balloon. People thought I had some kind of tumor on my butt.

houndlove

micksmom

Janet808

...I'd rather use a pad, or tampon and discard!  Who wants blood all over their hands, toilet seat, floor, sink, etc....

 

Janet, I swear, that's all I could think of when I was reading the website.

 

 

I swear y'all it is not that bad! The only time I ever had "murder scene" problems was with the reusable Instead Cups because they are so freakin shallow. Never ever a problem with my Keeper.  A little blood on a couple fingers? Yes, but you'll have that with a tampon too unless you're ultra-diligent. And that is why they put sinks and soap in bathrooms.

its going to be a murder scene no matter how you look at it.. i'm mostly intrigued by not having to blow money on something i'm going to flush lol  and .... ever had your dog dig into the trash and shred your USED pads all over the living room? oh thats fun to clean up.. i SERIOUSLY considered becoming a cat's only person that day.

 YIKES quite the interesting topic here... I think Iearned more about some of you then I wanted to!

I personally couldn't imagine using one... NOT FOR ME, no thanks... and that is all i will say (other than Billy, you need HELP!)

DumDog

its going to be a murder scene no matter how you look at it.. i'm mostly intrigued by not having to blow money on something i'm going to flush lol  and .... ever had your dog dig into the trash and shred your USED pads all over the living room? oh thats fun to clean up.. i SERIOUSLY considered becoming a cat's only person that day.

Haha, I was just going to say....no, but my CATS have done that!! 

DumDog

ever had your dog dig into the trash and shred your USED pads all over the living room?

My aunt's dog did that to me once right around the time I started getting my period (I was 10, and I hear some girls are proud when they get theirs? I was mortified, and then my mom went around and TOLD everyone..geesh). I've never been so horrified in my life as when Selene came prancing into the living room with that pad in her mouth...

I have never tried one but my roommate in college tried one of the disposable ones b/c she wanted to be able to have sex with her boyfriend without him knowing she was having her period.  It was a bloody mess and I don't think it lasted more than a day or two for her and I have never even considered it after that.  Now that I am learning about the reusable ones it seems more inviting.  Plus, I am much more comfortable and in tune with my body then I was then. 

What is it like to have intercourse while wearing a reusable one or is it even possible?  I wouldn't be trying to use it as birth control as we are trying to get pregnant, but it itsn't something we usually do while I am having my cycle....at least not while it is heavy.

If I tried it, it would be for the green (environmental) aspect...and also b/c it does actually seem cleaner for your body unless you are allergic to latex.  After reading this, I will never try to disposable ones...that's for sure!  This is quite an intersting topic actually. 

Intercourse=not really possible. The reusable ones are conical in shape and have little hard rubber "tails" and are of a much harder material than the single-use ones (the single use ones are plastic, kind of like saran wrap in a soft plastic ring, the reusables are natural rubber or silicone)

However, if you are trying to get pregnant, let me share a tip from the pros! Those Instead cups? The one thing they are good for (though I imagine any other kind of menstrual cup would also do the trick)  is to insert after intercourse (before you get up so keep one handy by the bed, or, er wherever your preferred location for baby makin is) so that it holds the semen up close to the cervix, thereby guiding those little guys on their way home.  Also, ladies who are not trying to conceive and are on hormonal (or IUD) birth control, this is also an excellent way to keep the mess down until you're actually ready to get up and mop up. You can even wait till morning!

Wow! I would have never thought of using those for that reason. Hmm. Interesting.. I'll have to keep that in mind when I am trying to get pregnant.. 

Interesting topic I must say. I've learned a lot!