To Cup or Not To Cup: A very gross and non-academic review of the incredible menstrual cup.

I have been having an internal debate about whether to make this review into a short propaganda speech:

^{“SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT BECAUSE HOW CAN YOU NOT?”}

or to actually talk about my experience with the menstrual cup (one cycle worth of experience at least) and make it as detailed as possible. You see, I could “sound more academic and less gross” if I wanted to. But I don’t think it would help. And I know this because I myself have been trying to start using a menstrual cup ever since the hype regarding the diva cup started. Why did I wait for around a year and a half then?

^1.       Going Green is a great idea but how was it going to improve my life?

Sure the ads were pretty great and they were all very clear about the fact that using reusable menstrual products was saving the earth. But I wasn’t the kind of person who would put myself at a huge inconvenience to save the earth. I am not an angel. How was I being benefited from using a menstrual cup?- that was the real question.

2.      No one I knew had ever used the cup.

When it comes to menstruation, you sort of depend on the knowledge of your mothers or at least the knowledge of your friends. And none of them had ever used the cup. Everyone was waiting for someone to use it and so no one was initiating the process.

3.      All the information available was “more academic and less gross.”

But a very few of us know whether we have a high or a low cervix. Till I actually put the cup into myself, despite all the Youtube tutorials, I had no idea where the cup was going to open up. I am not terrible at biology but our bodies are not diagrams just like places are not maps. You need to know how to navigate through your own body and none of these sanitized instructions of “insert the cup till the opening is situated below the cervix” made any sense to me. I needed someone to be gross and tell me “Your vagina is going to swallow it up. You don’t need to have surgical precision while placing it. Just get it in and your hoohaa will do the rest.” Because from my experience, your hoohaa will indeed do the rest. But I’ll go into that in a minute.

All of these reasons vanished when I discovered that a senior of mine from Brabourne, Sagarika Di, had started using the cup. Not only did she have the patience to answer all of my gross and very non-academic questions, she actually gave me the best advice of all times- "Get a long stemmed cup if you are nervous about not being able to get it out." Again, I will go into the type of cups you can get in a minute.

The other thing that really helped me was Youtube. There are countless videos on how to get the cup in or out. Bree from “Precious Stars Pads” is a gem of a person because she addresses every possible query you might have. And unlike me, she has been using menstrual cups and cloth pads for over five years. So she really knows what she is talking about.

Now, I could have gone into the “Which cup should you buy” section but you have no reason to be convinced to make the change from pads to the cup at all right now. So I’ll go into the “^{Going Green is a great idea but how was it going to improve my life?” bit.}

What’s in it for me?

1.     You only need to change it twice in 24 hours. 

  

Well for starters, one of the problems that a lot of women face during their periods is that they don’t have access to proper washrooms to change their pads every five hours or so. You’ll all remember at least one nightmarish experience of travelling during periods. With the menstrual cups, this is not really a problem because you can keep it in for at least 12 hours straight. I am not a very light bleeder but even after keeping it in overnight for 8 hours straight during the second day of my period, only half the cup filled up. Even if you are a heavy bleeder, you can still go longer with these than the pads. In the last two days of my cycle, I actually left it in for longer than 12 hours and that didn’t cause any discomfort at all. Menstrual cups are not associated with Toxic Shock Syndrome like pads and tampons. The only risk that you have is the risk of overflowing and leaking and I think that can happen only if you fail to take it out after fifteen hours or so.

2.      It is really comfortable.

Pads have always been really uncomfortable for me. I could never have gone without winged pads and winged pads have always caused a bad amount of chafing in my inner thighs. The cup has been a blessing. It literally feels like nothing. You can work out, dance or do yoga with the cup in and it will not bother you one bit. In fact, since I was not used to feeling…nothing, I had to keep on checking whether the cup had fallen out during the first day. It had not. It just stays it and doesn’t bother you.

3.      It never leaks.

I don’t really know if this is a universal fact or whether I got lucky, but my cup has literally never leaked during these five days. You can sleep however you want to, do whatever you want to- it won’t leak. I never had this stain-free a period.

And it really is good for the environment. I was never a very “go green” person but ever since I learnt that some women sanitation workers actually have to sort through the stained pads, which we dispose off, with their own hands- that turned me off pads completely. If possible, I don’t want to put another woman through something that I would never do myself, just because it is slightly inconvenient for me to change my behavior. Also, the added advantage was that the cup was not even slightly inconvenient for me.

But let’s not pretend that the experience is all unicorns and rainbows. You WILL feel a slight amount of pain while putting it in and taking it out but that’s the same amount of pain that you feel while masturbating. So I didn’t really think that was a huge deal. However, I won’t claim that all women are going to have the same experience that I did. The menstrual cup requires a steep learning curve at most times. So you need to really want to use it like I did.

These are some things that you should be aware of before buying a menstrual cup:

1.      You have to be comfortable with your own body.

You cannot be squeamish about touching your vagina if you intend to use the menstrual cup. You cannot be squeamish about looking at or touching blood because until you become an absolute expert in taking out your cup, blood’s gonna spill. That never bothered me, but I am aware of the fact that it might bother some people.

2.      Do your own research before you buy the cup.

While a review from a trusted friend is helpful, you need to know how a cup works before you buy one. You cannot be misinformed about exactly where the cup is supposed to fit or how you are supposed to take it out. It is completely true that you won’t understand the whole process till you start using the cup but that is no excuse to not prepare yourself as much as possible. I remember spending months reading up on the minutest details of the cup. As I have already mentioned before, the Youtube videos are also very useful. You should listen to the negative reviews as well because it takes time to get used to the cup. I had it easy somehow, doesn’t mean you will.

3.      One size does not fit all sometimes.

The Boondh cup claims that one size fits all but I am not very sure about it. Some people do require the smaller cup. The larger one will definitely cause them a certain amount of discomfort. I’ll include a size chart here.

There is one very useful advice that I can give you. If you are still unsure about whether you should get the cup or not, get a relatively cheaper cup. Try it out. I got one of the cheapest ones available (the medium  sized Sirona cup which came at Rs. 235- including delivery charges). Even if it doesn’t work out for you, which is a very rare possibility, you are not wasting a huge lot of money. Plus, it has a pretty long stem. My advice is that you buy a cup with a long stem and then cut it off if you feel like you have a low cervix (the stem will stick out a lot if you have a low cervix). That is a better alternative to buying a cup with no stem and then realizing that you have a high cervix. Speaking from personal experience, the cup sometimes does ride up if the flow is light. Don’t freak out, you CAN get the cup out. The cup cannot vanish up there.

The one thing that you have to remember is that- the cup is ultimately a better option in the long run. You just have to have some patience and not give up on it. Also, you can sort of feel like Captain Planet while shedding your uterine lining now, ain’t that neat?

Feel free to ask me anything that is bugging you.

P.S. I have some doubts about the cruelty-free status of menstrual cups because I am pretty sure medical grade silicon is tested on animals. But that’s another complicated topic and I’ll get into that later. I’m a vegan and I’m using this without feeling very bad, so you probably can use it too.