What’s up lovers!
As some of you may know from my Instagram account, this week was the first time I’ve used a menstrual cup. I figured it was time to say goodbye to the toxic tampons, be more eco-friendly, and say fuck you to capitalism-because apparently we’re spending ~60 dollars every year for menstrual products. To be honest, I’d much rather save that money for period cravings. So I did it! I purchased an Organicup (Size A) from Amazon for 28 dollars before having any clue on how to put that thing in me. Thankfully one of my friends has had quite a bit of experience using her own Diva Cup + the Organicup comes with instructions on the packaging, so I was going into this experience with somewhat of an understanding of how to put this bad boy in.
Starting off, you’re going to want to boil the cup for ~5 minutes before you use it, obviously if you’re cleaning it right before you need to put it in, just let it rest after taking it out of the water. My friend recommends putting it in while sitting on the toilet; however, I’ve never really put a tampon in while sitting on the toilet so I said f*ck it and put the cup in standing up. But to each their own because whatever is most comfortable for you, you do that babe. Now for the complicated part, you’re going to want to fold the cup until it looks like this:
I just folded it until it was small enough to put in me without any discomfort or pain. At first, it’s a little weird because it is bigger than the average tampon & your fingers will have to be in your vagina during this process. Just keep your legs spread, push her in, and if she feels a little lopsided or halfway out, just give her a little bit of an extra push until the stem of the cup is out. DO NOT CUT THE STEM. A little tip that made this experience so much easier was cutting my nails because they kept pinching my skin and that was probably the most and only painful part.
The diva cup can be in for up to 12 hours, depending on your flow, and when you take it out you just dump the fluids in the toilet and give it a hot/warm rinse before putting it back in. The way I take mine out is slowly pulling on the stem till the bottom of the cup is sticking out, then I pinch down on the bottom and pull the whole thing out. Do this slowly in case there’s a lot of blood, you just want to avoid any possible splattering. This part does feel a little uncomfortable, it's a little tight and some light pressure. In my opinion, it’s probably the only part that sucks but it’s truly not that bad. Pulling out a dry tampon is way worse.
Just to wrap up my menstrual cup review, I give this product a 10/10. I’m in love with it. It’s not as fast as a pad or tampon & it takes a little bit more of a strategy but you don’t have to worry about any infections, toxic shock syndrome, spending so much money on tampons every month, if you want to have a quickie you won’t have to pull a new dry tampon out of your vagina (this is my favorite part), and there’s really no discomfort or pain. I feel like my vagina is so much more healthy after using the cup vs using a tampon. I didn’t experience any leakage, if you are afraid of leakage you can definitely use a pad in addition to the cup. I was most amazed by how little I bled because I thought I had a medium-heavy flow, but on average we only lose about 3-4 tablespoons of blood every cycle!
If you have any other questions about this cup or your period in general, please don’t be shy to reach out on Instagram or by email!
Love,
K