Feminine Problem

tenintwenty

I don't change my tampon every time I pee as a matter of course. I never knew you were supposed to until a friend mentioned something about not wanting to pee once. I figure everything is all gross down there during that time anyways...

featherbrained

I just discovered Softcups, and I can't believe I've wasted the last 20 years on tampons and pads. And they have an eco-friendly one that is reusable for one cycle. Awesome.

I discovered Soft Cups last year too. Like the first time you try tampons, you gotta learn how to use them. But now, I can't imagine ever going back to tampons. Unlike the diva or moon cup, the Softcup has no weird stick-thingy. No more tampons in my purse. No more worrying about string rubbing or wet string. No more leakage. No more dry fanny. Can even do the funky chicken with my beau on lighter days without taking it out. I'm afraid the "can't tonight, Aunt Flo is in town" excuse is a goner.

Yup, tampons are SO last year.

Exactly. It took me full two cycles to get the hang of it, so to speak. But now, effortless. Funky chicken gooooood.

breeshabebe

I think I will try it. Can I find menstrual cups in Walmart or do I have to order it online???

I know that walmart has "SoftCups" but I haven't ever used them. I ordered my DivaCup online. I prefered doing it that way because they last for a whole year and only cost $35ish.... I felt like even if I used it for just 4 months and decided it wasn't for me, I wouldn't have wasted my money because thats how much I would have spent in tampons.

featherbrained

And, if you want the reusuable Softcups, I get them at Drugstore.com. I really recommend them as a starting point. Not as much learning curve, and cheaper, in case it's not for you.

A box of 14 of the disposables (about 2.5 cycles' worth) will run between $5 and $7 and a box of reuseables, (2 cycles' worth) is just over $3. Saving me a boatload of money, as I used to got through a box of OB's and a pack of light pads every month!

KayteeBear

My vote too. I know a lot of ladies here seem to get the heebie jeebies about using a menstrual cup but it's the BEST EVER thing I've ever used for my period and recommend it to everyone.

Menstrual cups are amazing, shorter periods. No bleach and chemicals up your fadge and beyond the initial cost, free!

Love mine.

Ok, I need to know. From what I understood, you need to wash/rinse the cup before re-inserting, right? How do you do that when you're outside your home? In the country where I live, sinks are always outside the stall, and it's that way too at my job.
[I hope I don't sound too stupid, I really want to know! I would like to try the cup.]

I'm light enough that I only have to empty mine in the morning then again at night. however if you need it empty it while out and about you can just wipe it out a bit with some toilet paper then reinsert and rinse it when you get the chance.

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I personally HATED those softcups. I found them way different than my Divacup. And so hard to use. I actually bought some and couldn't use them. Ended up just buying the Diva online and was able to get the hang of it right away.

SpinCyn

Hold the phone - why do you change it every time you pee?

I just feel weird if I don't... idk... creature of habit?

yeah you dont have to change it every single time, especially near the end when there isnt as much of a flow.

KayteeBear

I think I will try it. Can I find menstrual cups in Walmart or do I have to order it online???

I know that walmart has "SoftCups" but I haven't ever used them. I ordered my DivaCup online. I prefered doing it that way because they last for a whole year and only cost $35ish.... I felt like even if I used it for just 4 months and decided it wasn't for me, I wouldn't have wasted my money because thats how much I would have spent in tampons.

Do you mean the DivaCup lasts a year? ... Because as long as you clean the cup properly it will actually last up to 10 years.

Mpol2

"So one of the many new devices I purchased for this trip was a Diva "Moon Cup". Since feminine hygine supplies would be hard to come by and waste-producing, I opted instead to buy a thing like a Barbie Deluxe Toilet Plunger, and stuff it up my hooha.

The theory is that the cup catches your pan drippings...

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Best read in ages...

I literally cried, I was laughing so hard.

Mpol2

Have to say, there have been no guys comments on here, they usually like to take a sneak at an obvious female thread..... are they just a little freaked haha...

Naw. I'm here I commented. I'm a guy. Nothing freaky to me about this....yet

You were clearly a GREAT friend to someone::drinker:

CristinaL1983

"So one of the many new devices I purchased for this trip was a Diva "Moon Cup". Since feminine hygine supplies would be hard to come by and waste-producing, I opted instead to buy a thing like a Barbie Deluxe Toilet Plunger, and stuff it up my hooha.

The theory is that the cup catches your pan drippings, and you empty it a couple times a day, washing it with hippy soap, and reinserting. It presupposes you are enough of an Earth Mother to be OK not only with your monthly outpourings, but also with generally fossicking around in your flaps. Now, I am no stranger to gore. Nor am I squeamish about my delicate rose of delight, except that I have no such illusions about it and indeed am always reminded of nothing so much as stuffing an oddly-warm raw turkey. So, when after several weeks of teasing, the Period Fairy threatening to postpone the Communist Invasion until I was actually getting on the plane (I was about ready to scream and cry at some hapless unwary male just as a sacrifice to appease her) at last I greeted the rosy-fingered dawn and set about embarking on my new life as a eco-friendly Diva.

The Moon Cup comes in two sizes; Size A, for youthful nymphs under 30 who have never given birth and have silken tresses and tinkling laughs and are all size 0, and size B, for Big Ol' *****es like m'self, who have either spawned, or are so old (ie over 30) that they might as well have been poppin' them out like Duggar Donuts, because their sugar walls are now echoing corridors full of cobwebs and slackness. Of course the packaging phrases it more nicely, but I was miffed to see that despite having never replicated, I was still doomed to the Big Gulp size because of my age alone.

So, chalice in hand, fingers washed, and let's fold that thing like a taco (no, not THAT thing, the other thing!) and cram it up where only one man has gone before and even then not for a damn long time even when he WAS still around. I'm sure I imagined the rusty creaking sounds as I tried to shove something which was larger than anything previous (with the exception of various medical speculums which, I believe, were constructed by the same person who designed the Montlake Drawbridge)into the Gaping Maw.

Now, you're supposed to roll the cup up, smuggle it past the border, let it expand, then turn it clockwise (or counter clockwise, or then one way and another, stopping when you hear the click, or something...) anyway, you're supposed to be able to turn this thing like a dial in there."If the cup does not turn easily, you did it wrong" Oh, of course, I'll just grasp hold of a thing about the size, shape, and slipperyness of the pointy end of a peeled hard-boiled egg, which is now buried in the meaty folds of my innermost femininity, which, I may add, are well-sluiced with the special effects from a Quentin Tarantino film, and spin that sucker like a dredel.

There is, also, a small stem at the base of this cup, which, being made of the same slippery silicon and about a centimeter long, is about as helpful as providing a live, untrained earthworm for a handle. More on this later.

So, rotate this thing in situ, to ensure a good 'seal' and a comfortable fit.

Does. Not. Happen.

Ladies (and gentlemen, although I hope for your sake none of you gentlemen are reading this), I tried. I hauled that thing in and out of there more times, and with much less joy, than Eeyore with his birthday present, and not once could I get that thing to "turn easily". I finally gave up, since it seemed, at one point, to be "fully inflated" and more or less in the right place. Frankly I think that having left my furrow unplowed for so long, I'm not exactly the proper degree of hotdog-hallway that the instruction-writer was intending to address, but so be it. Let's give this thing a whirl, if we can't give it a twist.

Fast forward a few hours in which I've done nothing much. To its credit, I don't feel the presence of THE CUP at all, no discomfort, not even a vague sense of "eugh" as I sometimes have when knowing all that stands between me and my khakis is a small cottony Dutch boy. In fact, I'm getting rather concerned that the Diva Cup has wormed its way in like some form of parasitic jellyfish and is now eagerly migrating up my fallopian tubes, with me all unknowing. Time to go fishing.

And that is where I discover that, while it's difficult to try and 'turn' a Diva Cup newly lodged in your sanctum sanctorum, it's a freakin' log-fall compared to trying to recover said Cup after it has gotten comfortably settled in the downy folds of your blood-engorged tissues. Yes, indeed, if cram my fingers up there to the point of pain, I can just, tantilizingly, tickle the end of that goddamn silicone 'stem'. Grasp it? Not in hell.

Of course the instructions say, if this happens, DO NOT PANIC. Well, thank god for that, because I was already running through the list of people I'd trust with a flashlight, a set of forceps, and an experience that would scar both of us for the rest of our lives. There were instructions for different positions, and "bearing down" and so forth, which I tried, to no avail, and I was pretty sure that my ham-fisted efforts (ahem) were just making things worse on the "swollen" front, so Diva and I took a break, and retired to our respective corners for an hour or so.

Now I brought out my secret weapon: Beer. If, gods help me, I ever have to have a baby, I intend to be drunk off my *kitten* for the delivery, and I surely hope that the Fairy Prince Unicorn Elvis who is my chosen Babydaddy will provide a bedside IV of godly ambrosia, or at least Jim Beam. But anyway, two beers and I'm good to go spelunking in quest of the Holy Grail once more.

Either the beer, or the break, or the combination of all of these and squatting on the bathmat like a Neanderthal crapping, finally, produced enough of that goddamn 'stem' to grab (which was good, because I was dreading having use the kitchen tongs Up There or something) and, with a surprising amount of horrible suctioning "discomfort", the invader was routed! And, wonder of wonders, it was indeed partially filled. Not filled with DELICIOUS CANDY, no, but it did seem to have been, you know... -working-, before I so rudely dislodged it from its parasitic feeding. I felt a combination of grudging respect and intrigue, as one might upon meeting a foe worthy of their steel. Provided we could agree to disagree on the whole "turn 360 degrees in place" aspect, perhaps this could indeed be a workable partnership. Better than bleeding into the Rupununi and attracting every caiman, pirahna, and candiru fish for fifty miles.

But not without some boundaries first. I tied a ROPE to that stupid stem this time."

Hahaha. Have not finished reading through the comments but this made me laugh until I cried.

I use the disposable cups. Available at my local Walgreens for about three times the cost of tampons or pads and probably the opposite of environmentally friendly but worth every penny and square foot of murdered forest. Apparently, they are much easier to use if this post is to be believed. They go by the brand name "instead" best thing ever. I forget I'm even having a period for about 12 hours at a time.

CristinaL1983

How's it handle, pain wise, I mean? Tampons can actually make me sore, both being in and inserting. By the end of my period I'm like OH GOD IT FEELS LIKE SOMEONE TOOK A SLEDGEHAMMER TO MY VAG WALLS! So the idea of inserting something even bigger near my cervix really freaks me out.

Has anyone found that it's less painful than tampons?

I use the "instead" cups that can be found at Walgreens (at least my local Walgreens). They are single use and don't rely on suction so I haven't had any of those issues. I also had issues with tampons and these literally feel like nothing to me. Once I put them in (and they are super easy to put in) I completely forget about it. I actually forget that I'm having my period from time to time. I'm usually surprised at the end that I'm done. No discomfort for me whatsoever.

tatd_820

Oh mah gah.....taking out a dry tampon hurts!

Never heard of this cup thing. Hum, learn something new every day.

Rurouni_Kou

TMI warning:
I'm adding my hat in the ring for menstrual cups! Pads squick me out (I feel like I'm wearing a diaper, ugh) and tampons gave me issues with the string becoming damp (sweat, urine) and causing rashes and such, not to mention they were expensive, dried me out, smelled funky (and scented ones don't help, my clothes from high school STILL smell like scented tampons to this day), and I hated the amount of waste they created. Menstrual cups fixed all that. No more rashes from wet strings or damp pads, no more funky smell, just clean it out morning and evening when I take a shower and no more waste.

Highly recommended!

Oh yeah, I use a lunette, it's smaller than a Divacup. My cervix tends to drop during my cycle too, so I turn the cup inside out -it makes the cup shallower when turned inside out. I trimmed the stem to nothing but turning it inside out made it even better for me to use.

Edited to add: Forgot to add this is another reason why I like my cup over tampons: http://consumerist.com/2012/03/28/dont-worry-thats-just-bread-mold-on-your-tampon/ Bread mold should NOT go up there!

devil_in_a_blue_dress

I am so glad my birth control has ended my period. Don't miss that bish at all.

featherbrained

Softcups Reduced my cramps, too, which used to last 2 days and nearly debilitate me. Now, maybe a couple hours, and not nearly so bad.

breeshabebe

I think I will try it. Can I find menstrual cups in Walmart or do I have to order it online???

I know that walmart has "SoftCups" but I haven't ever used them. I ordered my DivaCup online. I prefered doing it that way because they last for a whole year and only cost $35ish.... I felt like even if I used it for just 4 months and decided it wasn't for me, I wouldn't have wasted my money because thats how much I would have spent in tampons.

Do you mean the DivaCup lasts a year? ... Because as long as you clean the cup properly it will actually last up to 10 years.

My instructions said that it was recommended for 1 year use- but I don't doubt that it could last longer.

KayteeBear

I think I will try it. Can I find menstrual cups in Walmart or do I have to order it online???

I know that walmart has "SoftCups" but I haven't ever used them. I ordered my DivaCup online. I prefered doing it that way because they last for a whole year and only cost $35ish.... I felt like even if I used it for just 4 months and decided it wasn't for me, I wouldn't have wasted my money because thats how much I would have spent in tampons.

Do you mean the DivaCup lasts a year? ... Because as long as you clean the cup properly it will actually last up to 10 years.

My instructions said that it was recommended for 1 year use- but I don't doubt that it could last longer.

Interesting. I don't know anybody who replaces theirs once a year. Meh. I'm too lazy to do that. I've had mine for probably 2-3 years so far.

However, if it's in the instructions from the company it's most likely a "cover their a$$es" thing. They kind of have to just to be on the safe side but if you clean it well/boil it between uses then there's absolutely no reason you need to replace it every year.

Viola47

You have a butt load of replies, I realize this. Also, shamefully, I'm not going to read all butt-load of the replies. I know menstrual cups have been mentioned, and I'm going to run with that.

I've been using a Diva Cup for 5 years. I cycle, I run, I lift weights, I elliptical. I used to change tampons ever hour or two (very heavy flow), but I can go up to 6 hours on my heavy days, and up to 12 on my light days. There are a ton of brands to choose from, but seriously - menstrual cups hold way more than tampons or pads (or tampons AND pads, like I used to do). I used to have an excuse for not doing a 40 or 50 mile bike ride, but the Diva Cup ruined that. They're fantastic, and waaaaaay more comfortable. No more period panties, and way less leaks.