The proof of the pudding is in the eating!

It’s been a bit since my last blog, November of last year - there has been quite a lot of adjustments to date due to this pandemic. In that note, I would like to firstly pass my condolences to all who have lost loved ones and encourage those who have lost a steady income, their jobs, houses or any other that it will eventually get better.

Since my last blog, I have been receiving some DMs on various aspects of menstrual cups and I thought perhaps this is something I could write about, well my experience that is. I have seen a lot of online articles online on this and my experience could be similar or different – I will try as much as possible to explain my experiences however just like most things the proof of the pudding is in the eating! I would definitely encourage you to try using the cup for yourself.

Before I go any further, one of the biggest questions that I have been asked is if the cup can be used by virgins. Where I come from, virginity is valued with it playing a critical role in the traditional marriage process and rites. Without delving too much into the issue, I did some very light reading on this- basically a virgin considering using the cup has to do a personal research towards an informed decision on switching to a cup.

Cost- I did experience some massive savings when I switched to using the cup. I was at about US$7 per month therefore about US$84 per year with my super plus and super pads combo. When I switched I only spent US$17 on my large cup and sterilizer saving a whopping US$67 in the first year! As the cup is expected to last 10 years, my calculation is I saved about US$756 of future income in the next 9 years! I definitely could use that saving for other necessities! Although I am sure the savings would be different for each person depending on their monthly budget- a saving no matter how small is crucial especially in these difficult times.

Is it not gross seeing your blood? – This would depend on an individual I think. Personally when I started using the cup I thought I would be irked by seeing my blood especially in that quantity! TMI -On the contrary, I have come to take emptying out time as a good way to examine what’s going on with my body. I now take some time to examine a lot about it for instance is it a normal color, too light or too dark, the clot situation or related. Best of all I’ve come to learn what my normal quantity and color is. I wasn’t able to do this when I was on the disposables combo.

How easy is wearing the cup? - Well in my experience completely relaxing helped a lot, I realized that if my muscles were tense it was difficult to wear the cup, hurting even. I found that wetting the cup immensely helped too. Initially I wore and removed the cup squatting down but quickly found for me it was easier to lift one leg higher for both. Of course this would be different for each person and would recommend for each person to experiment and find what works.

Can one experience leakages when wearing the cup? - Initially when I started using the cup, it was a complete disaster; I experienced massive leakages as I didn’t wear it properly. Now that I know how to wear it I can easily forget I am on my period and have to put a timer to empty especially on my lighter days. It’s so easy to forget to empty after the 12 hours - I did this a number of times and boy did my cup smell! I had to soak in vinegar and water then sterilize afterwards, thankfully that worked! For me when using the cup, I am definitely only worried about my hair getting wet when swimming

How many hours can one wear the cup for? – Simple answer, there is no fixed time to wear the cup as this depends on each woman’s cycle, even for each woman the different cycle days determine how long one can wear the cup for. My experience is I can easily wear the cup for 12 hours on my light days and on my heavy day about 3-5 hours during the day and at night will have to double up with a cloth pad so I don’t wake up in the middle of the night to empty. For me this works wonders considering I used to wake up every 2 hours to change the pad and tampon combo.

Thank you for taking the time to go through my experiences, as usual, I would love to hear from you.

Happy Periods and Stay Safe!