On Wearing a Cup...

Warning: If you're squeamish talking about your period or just don't want to know about the Diva Cup then you should skip this post!

A few months ago someone on ApronGirls put up a post about how much she loves her new Diva Cup. I went to the website to check it out. It looked pretty good. I have always chose to use pads because I just really can't tolerate the thought of it possibly leaking around a tampon and getting it all over my fingers pulling it out. Things just don't get much more gross for me than that. Needless to say, that made me a little concerned about trying out a product that had to not only be inserted but also emptied periodically. I was seeing potential for a certain amount of mess, but also enough possible benefits that I decided to try it out. So here's the scoop. It cost me just under $33 (I don't pay sales tax, so that will change depending on where you are) and you never have to buy another one - unless, of course, you are under 30 yrs old and haven't had kids; if that's you then there is a smaller size for you until you hit either of those milestones. I've been thinking about getting one for a while now and picking it up on Monday was actually great because I started the next day, so I've been using it all this week.

The cup is made of medical grade silicone and all you do is fold it in half length-wise (imagine a taco, sort of) and insert the open end of the cup straight back into the vagina. As you insert it (and it gets further from the reach of your fingers) it's going to unfold, obviously. It's important to do three things now. #1 Reach up to feel the base of the cup and make sure that it is fully rounded and open; being able to feel it flattened at all will mean that you don't have a seal and it will leak. #2 Still holding the base of the cup, rotate it a full turn to make sure that it is all the way open. #3 Take a hold of the stem at the base and give a couple of slight tugs to make sure that it's in securely. Once that's done, you're good to go for about 12 hours. Even on my heavy days I emptied it three times, but could have gotten away with less because the cup wasn't nearly full. And the great thing is that I didn't have that painfully heavy pull when the flow was heavy. When it comes time to empty it, you simply grasp the base of the cup and relax your vagina while you pull it out, tipping it into the toilet as it comes out. You will still need to either wash it out in the sink with a little soap (or wipe it out with toilet paper, if you really feel you have to empty it while you're in a public restroom) but because of the seal at the top the outside of the cup has nothing more on it than the normal vaginal excretions that occur at any other time. No mess. In fact, the only time I got anything on me at all was while re-inserting it when I check and turn the base of the cup, and then not every time and it's very minimal.

While wearing it, there were occasional times when I could feel it, but mostly not. The times that I could, it was mostly because I could feel the ridges at the base of the cup designed for gripping it. While it was certainly unusual, it was not really uncomfortable, and it's definitely a fair trade for being able to go several hours without checking for leaks in a pad, not having to worry about leaks on my sheets at night, and not having to smell it every time I go to the bathroom and change the pads. Not to mention never buying pads again or having to empty them from the trash can in the bathroom. And you can still do almost all of your normal daily activities while wearing it. I'm sure that someday someone will come up with an even better solution than the Diva Cup but, in the meantime, this is pretty good :)