Hi lovely people!

First, and probably more interestingly, I want to point out this article.  It's poorly written and has some inaccurate information in it, but at least cups are in the media!  It's interesting to watch this Alicia thing progress...it seems to get more and more strange everytime I hear something about them.

Next, I finally got to try out my Mia and I LOVE it.  I have no other cup experience to compare it to, but it was fantastic.  Honestly, I don't bleed all that much, but through my entire first cycle with it, there was no leaking.  Also, it seems to instantly relieve my craps.  The moment I put it in, they go away and as soon as I take it out they come back.  Weird.  For me, both insertion and removal were very easy (tried both the c-fold and the punch-down fold and both worked well). 

For those who are following, my Miacup also has only two holes in it for some reason, I remember reading something here that implied that it's their new design.  I don't know about other people, but for me having only two holes doesn't seem to be a problem.  I'm pretty long, so I just bear down until I can reach the in-tact stem and pull until I can tilt the cup "sideways" a little to avoid the "whole rim at once" removal.  There doesn't seem to be any turbo-suction problem.

MODS: Not sure how to tag for the news article, there's no "news" or "media" tag.  I did activism, but if this is not correct, please change it.  :)  Thanks.

Hello, all.
I know everyone is eager to get to the bottom of The Alicia Saga.

Following the response I received from Mr. Alves of Goldwin Medicare Ltd., I was contacted by Samantha Backman.

Apparently, previous communication thought to be from Ms. Backman was actually from a volunteer with good intentions using Ms. Backman's name.
Unfortunately, she (the volunteer) shared some sensitive and inaccurate information with us.

I will try to set the record straight according to the information Ms. Backman has provided me.

The Alicia cup was sold in Australia and New Zealand via their website for about 6 months. Approximately 4,000 units were sold and the testimonials are from real users. The company decided they didn't want to compete at a retail level and established a relationship with LifeCell.
It seems the website was left up by mistake.

There are no immediate plans for The Alicia to be sold at a retail level in India or anywhere else.
At this time, LifeCell has rights to The Alicia for stem cell collection.
Ms. Backman says that she hopes the women who use it for stem cell collection will feel comfortable using it as a menstrual cup.

The information regarding Mr. Alves connection with The Alicia was also incorrect.
While his company is involved in the manufacture of other products being developed by the Alicia group, Goldwin Medicare Ltd. was not involved in the production of The Alicia menstrual cup.
I'm sure we can all understand his utter dismay at receiving my email...

The information regarding the Government of India's plan to subsidize and distribute 800 million Alicia cups was also inaccurate, at best.
The Indian government has no intention to purchase or distribute The Alicia menstrual cup.
There are other products/medical devices under development that Ms. Backman and her company hope will prove beneficial to the people of India. While she shared some information with me, she is unable to discuss it publicly (and asked me to keep the information private as well) because things are still in the R&D phase.

Ms. Backman says she was a menstrual cup user for many years - until she hit menopause. She says her daughters as well as her female staff members use The Alicia.

So there you have it. Mystery solved.

*Edit*
I have integrated the answers from Samantha B. into my original post regarding contact with Mr. Alves and I have added the email to Mr. Abhaya with answers highlighted, as well.  (see this post)

*Edit 2 - 4/23/09*
I'm releasing this to public viewing w/Ms. Backman's approval.

Seems like the fact that a cup is worth five years of pads in India is causing some surprise(ref. to my previous post). I thought I'd explain that.

1. Exchange rates. 1 USD = Rs 50 and more, currently. Rs 50 in India is going to buy you a LOT more basic amenities than $1 in the US. For example, I can get a chicken roll on the street for Rs 15($0.3), or at the best places for Rs 25($0.5). A piece of pastry at well-known chains in the city for Rs 35($0.7). An 8-pack of Kotex is - I kid you not - Rs 22. Yes, that's hardly forty-five cents. O.B tampons are Rs 166 for a pack of 20, that's $1.5 for 10.
I was a Whisper Ultra/Whisper Choice girl in my pad days, and since I bleed light, I'd need hardly a dollar's worth every month. Whisper, manufactured in India and doesn't have to pay for the international Kotex brand name, so provides twice the quality Kotex does, at about 1.5 times the price.
Most of the rural population still uses rags. Yes, rags. Not our beautiful and comfortable cloth pads.

2. Average standard of living. In my city, a healthy young adult can survive easily on Rs 10,000. Which is $200. Including house rent. The Rs 2000($40)-odd I'm spending on my cup is equal to my travel+snacks+cellphone budget for a month(I'm a college student so that's how I measure, lol). Of course, Kolkata is probably the cheapest metro in the world ... living in Mumbai is nearly 10 times that expensive.
But yeah... the postage for my cup would get me a pair of nice pump shoes, lol. Or a T-shirt. The cup itself costs me as much as 50 mL of Nina Ricci perfume, lol.
Electronics obviously cost the same everywhere, since it's a global market. Then again we also get Chinese stuff dirt cheap, might be cheaper here than there. Not sure really.

3. Things are, in general, cheaper here. Reason #1: It's available in plenty. The land is fertile, we have an ENORMOUS population so labour is incredibly cheap... cost of production gets slashed right there.

I guess I'm rambling now... basically I just wanted to give you guys an idea of how ridiculous the Alicia Cup thingy is. And also to show you exactly how hard it's going to be to create a market for menstrual cup users in India.
On the other hand, a 5-day bleeder who uses OB tampons would have her cup pay for itself in about two years... less if you count inflation. And given the benefits of a cup, I feel it's worth that much. So slowly, I guess the rich women in India might get interested in cups and find a way to produce them locally. I'm sure that'll work out cheaper. And then there are people like me, who feel that the long lifespan + increased comfort + "I love my cup factor" outweigh the majorly steep cost.

PS: Mods, I'm not sure how to tag this!

I see the website is back up.  Has anyone bought one?  Plan to buy one?  How much is it?

Does anyone know what's up with the Alicia Cup: http://thealiciainternational.com/products.html ? I'm curious because the cup looks quite different than the others, and the website says that it comes in four (four!!!) different sizes. The size dimensions are not shown, though, and the website is vague overall. The website does say that 10% of every purchase goes to woman's health education in third world countries, which I love!

Does anyone have any experience with these cups?

I'm a recent convert to cups, and I am so in love with them! I'm actually a little obsessed, and it's driving me nuts that I cannot find more info and user stories (other than testimonials on the Alicia website) on this particular cup!

Some of you may remember a few weeks ago the "Alicia menstrual pod" came to the attention of this board, and I undertook to make some enquiries, since the "inventor" seemed to be an Australian. Well, I finally got an email back and thought you all might be interested. Also I would like your input, as some of this sounds a bit strange to me.

1) She may be an Australian, but she is apparently living in India and having the cup manufactured there.

2) She says she plans to focus on selling the Alicia in the 3rd world "to stop infections due to poor quality menstrual products". This strikes me as being a bit odd - I have never heard that this is an issue in the 3rd world. I thought TSS was a 1st-world tampon associated problem.

3) This will therefore be the cheapest cup on the market, at AUD30 each or AUD60 for two.

4) She wants to make the extra-small and extra-large cups because she says that in the 3rd world where women squat their pelvic floors are tighter, and after lots and lots of babies their pelvic floors can be looser, and she wants to cover all the bases.

5) She does not plan to market her cups at all in the "Western World" and so I don't think she has (or plans to get) them through either the FDA or TGA - this wasn't quite clear in the email.

6) She has offered to sell me one if I want it, but I don't think I do. I already have a Lunette and a GreenCup, both of which I really like, so this was just a curiosity thing. If anyone in Australia wants one I can get you the contact details to arrange this, but they aren't available on the open market, apparently, and there are no plans to do this.

Any other vital info anyone wants about this?

Since I'm in Australia, I decided to try the phone numbers on their website - and they are disconnected. They haven't answered their email, and though it is the Christmas holidays most businesses have at least an automated message acknowledging enquiries. Especially when the enquiry has "purchase" in the subject line!

So I have to conclude that this particular venture of Samantha what's-her-name didn't work out. Probably for the best, considering some of the concerns about her. I suspect she got hung up in the TGA and couldn't get it approved and just "went off the boil". If I hear anything else I'll let this community know.

Check it out, this was brought to my attention this morning:

http://thealiciainternational.com/products-alicia.html