Hi,I'm 14 years old,and although I'm still haven't gotten the hang of it yet,I'm worried about using my cup for P.E. class because I have a low cervix(I think) during my cycle,so this might be a dumb question,but if I were to do squats or crunches would my cup fall out??? And have any of you done yoga or any other sports with a low riding cup successfully?

Thank you for replying! :)

Hi everyone!

Though I'm not entirely surprised by this, I am EXTREMELY excited that REI carries Diva Cups! Check this out for reviews:

http://www.rei.com/product/779113

I'm busy provisioning for a 5-month journey through New Zealand, and came across the Diva on their website! I'm so glad it's there for outdoorsy ladies to see, because I honestly cannot imagine camping (or anything else, really) without my cup...

LOVE!

OH MY GOD.

First time poster, first time user... enlightenment and all.

A little while ago I was referred here by a member (hiiiiii). I'd vaguely heard of cups before, but never really considered using them. Well, I did some research and ordered a small Ladycup "Lotos" - the first couple of dry runs were painful and disappointing (despite using lube), so I decided to put it away for a while. I think I'd been rushing it... definitely needed practice. Aunt Flo finally showed up this week, and I figured out the triangle fold works perfectly. Yay for periods being significantly less gross with no risk of TSS! I can't feel a thing, but the real test was using it during training today. I'm a weightlifter/strength athlete and I take my training seriously. Absolutely ZERO leakage or pain, and I could front squat like the hardcore meathead I am.

( Pictures of the Ladycup Lotos! ...and the hilarious sticker that comes along with it. )


In conclusion, this community is extremely kickass, and menstrual cups have officially opened my eyes. THANK YOU. <3

I posted a few months ago because my small Moon Cup US was leaking and thanks to all the great advice I received I bought a large Lady Cup which I love. I used it last month and had not one leak!

Today, though, my period began and I also had my weekly yoga class. As we were doing Warrior II Pose, I heard this weird soft gurgling sound and then felt like my cup was leaking. After class I checked, and sure enough, my cup had leaked. It wasn't a big deal because I was wearing a cloth liner - but has this happened to anyone else? Is there a way to avoid it? On the first few days of my period I need to empty my cup every four hours and now I'm thinking that maybe if I'd emptied it before class (I had been wearing it for three hours) it wouldn't have leaked but I'm not sure if that would've solved the problem. I'd like to be able to do yoga with a cup without worrying about it.

Hi guys,

I just wanted to share a sad story with you, so I could have support and love, and maybe feedback.

So, I've been using my LadyCup for around a year and a half now (yay! love it!!! + always trying to nicely convert people), and I've been living in Amsterdam for the past several months, and obviously biking around everywhere. This has never really been a problem up until now. Today, I got home, and when I went to go to the bathroom and peed, I had a horrid burning / stinging-in-the-wound sensation like something was wrong. I poked around with a water-wet tissue and sure enough, one of my lips was swollen and in pain and maybe abraded? I really don't know. I had to change my cup, which worried me because I didn't want to upset such a sensitive area (I mean, generally obviously sensitive, but right now especially so, with the pain), but I gingerly did so and tried not to offend or bother my sore lip too much.

I wonder, though, if it's because of the combination of "cupping" and biking? It was always fine before, but I wonder it today, when riding around, I was grinding the leftover stub of my cup stem into my vulva lip flesh--especially every time I bounced and bobbed up and down over all the bumpy bricked streets here. I'm sure if the cup was riding too low, the edges / bottom of the stem could easily bear into my lip flesh.

Do you think I've actually hurt or injured myself? My hope is that this will just go away and heal itself, and that I couldn't actually have done much damage with just some silicon and a bicycle seat. What do you think?

Also--please send love and hugs! I was very sad when I first came out of the bathroom (obviously), and my first thought was to fly online and solicit support from you all.

xoxo
Miranda

Hi. I'm a 13 year old virgin who has been using cups for 4 cycles now and I love my cups. So I went go kart racing today with my LilacCup in and I didn't get one leak. Cups are awesome all those bumps and sharp corners yet no blood got on my panties.

I have a large blue lady cup, and I love it.  I've had it for a few months, and haven't had any problems, except swimming.

Everything that I've read says that cups filling with water are either full before you start swimming, or aren't open and sealed completely.  I empty my cup right before swimming, make sure that it's sealed, and after 45 minutes to an hour of swimming the cup is full to the top with pool water (and a little blood).  As soon as I get out and start walking to the locker room, the water starts leaking out, but when I go to take the cup out, its completely open and where I left it.  I've also noticed when I'm not wearing my cup and I get out of the poor, I can feel the water leaking out of me.  Is that normal, or do I just have weird anatomy that's also causing the cup to fill with water?  Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Hey :D
I have a Green LadyCup and I love it!
One thing I'm worried about is not being able to do everything I normally do though.
I looked through most of the sports tag but that was a lot about swimming.. so if it's been asked sorry!
I'm a cheerleader and its a whole lot of movements, so will this effect the cup at all? I really don't want to wear a tampon for practice, but should I anyway? splits in the air and such worry me, ya know :P

Thanks everyone!!

Hi all - I've searched through the memories and tags for posts about swimming, and all the posts seem to agree that yes, swimming with your cup in is definitely a fairly problem free experience, except some people get water in their cups. I will, as the post suggests, empty my cup before I go in the pool . . . but really what I'm interested in more than water getting *into* the cup, is blood getting OUT of the cup and being visible when I'm swimming in the pool!! Is this possible? Or, even if the blood leaks out, will it basically not be visible in the water? (Seems a bit yucky though, making people swim in my menstrual blood).

I'm a bit paranoid I guess - I usually just avoid the pool when I'm on my period, but I've made a time with a friend to go aquajogging for exercise and I'd really like to not have to cancel.

Just in case it's important, I'm 34, no children, and I use a size B (if that's the bigger one) MoonCup UK (which I totally love love LOVE). I'm generally moderately heavy on my second day (still don't have to change the cup for eight or more hours, and even then it's just because I'm uptight and paranoid), and I'm going swimming on Saturday which is the third day . . . of course, I don't trust my body to always stick to it's usual patterns - it likes to shake things up a bit from time to time (and I've never gotten over the 'trauma' of having periods that could go through a tampon in five minutes flat - that was pre-cup of course!)

Thanks!

Edit to add: I had a bath with my cup in . . . and the water did go into it, but I'm more interested in the blood coming out.

I've been using the diva cup for 3+ years now, and absolutely love it. I'm learning how to surf, and went out by myself for the first time today. It's also the first time I've been out with my cup. Not that I'm surprised at all, but I wanted to report that it worked perfectly. :]

Good to know for anyone worried about sharks picking up on menstrual blood and coming after you, haha.

I just wanted to let it be known that cups should be fine to use while whitewater rafting! I went yesterday (nothing too crazy - just class 3 rapids) with my cup in and had no leaks or anything - it remained completely sealed. I was also dumped off the raft twice and no water made it into the cup.

:)

So, my mother and I were discussing periods and how you should handle them with my little sister today. Shes 12, 13 in about a month, and has had her period for a little under a year. My mom bought it up because she just did my sister's laundry and found her underware all stained from her last period. My sister got sort of angry at my mother, who won't let her use tampons, for lecturing her since she isn't giving her any other options. My mom got pretty grossed out and so my sister came to me to talk.

My mother told me not to mention the cup to my sister, because my mother is extremely closed minded on the subject of menstruation, but I explained to my sister that she really shouldn't use tampons because they aren't very good for your insides. She asked me if there were any other options aside from disposable pads and I told her there was but that mom didn't want me to tell her about it. She already knows about reusable pads and thinks they're weird... but shes 12, so thats understandable. She doesn't like the idea of carrying a bloody pad around with you until you get home and can wash it.

Now, my sister is pretty physically active. This is one of the main reasons she doesn't like pads. They make her itch, and when shes running around, she often has to stop and shift them back into place since they move around. The moving around also causes leaks. Also, she sleeps on her back, and doesn't like waking up with bloody sheets because she wasn't able to sleep on her tummy all night.

I know shes young, and I know my mother said not to tell her about cups, but I did anyway. At first she laughed at the idea, but then she started seeing the benefits of it as well. She saw the eco-friendly aspect right off the bat before I even mentioned it, and was really excited about the fact that it means she won't have to carry around pads in her purse. She was intimidated by the cup I showed her, the small Diva, but I told her that cups come in MUCH smaller sizes than that, and that one was made for older people like me. She wanted to see, so I showed her the small LadyCup and MeLuna cups in comparison to the small Diva. Like many others, she absolutely loves the MeLuna website and wants the purple model with the ball stem. I told her I'd get it for her birthday, but here is where my big problem is: I leave for college in about 3 weeks.

I'd love to move my sister over to cups. She is very excited about it, and just loves the idea. But I don't want to get it for her and then go off to school. My mother has apparently placed parental restrictions on her text messaging, and so she can't text certain words(so silly!), so we came up with a secret phrase already... if she needs help, she will text me "I need help with my cookies! Please call me!" and thats that. I'm just concerned that she'll freak out or something to that extent and that no one will be able to help her, because my mother isn't cup-friendly.

While I'd really like to wait until the XL comes out so that I can order both cups together, but I'd rather have her cup for her so that she can use it on her period and come to me in person with any questions rather than on the phone. I can't show her a better fold on the phone, and I can't demonstrate which angle might be a better way to insert, and I can't give her an encouraging hug on the phone either.

Also, heres a question from her, what size should she get? She goes through about 3 maxi pads per 24 hour day on her period, but since she moves around so much, she leaks. We were leaning towards the small of either the LadyCup or MeLuna, and are ready to order, but I'm not sure that her period won't be too heavy for these cups. I suppose this is a silver lining to having the XL out later, so that if she has to change the cup too often, I can just order her the next size up if she needs it. We looked at the charts in comparison to tampons, but she only uses pads.

Pretty much any insight into going from pads to cups would be helpful, preferably from the youngest users on the site, or those of you who have young daughters/sisters who you've given the cup to with success.

Edit: Just wanted to add that while my mother won't buy her tampons for her to use, she has used them before when a pad wasn't available. Its not that she isn't comfortable with penetration, but that my mother isn't comfortable with making it readily available to her, due to her own experiences. My mother got a tampon stuck in her after somehow pulling the string off, hence her apprehension on letting my sister, or myself, use them. She wouldn't buy them for me until I got to high school, and even then she only wanted me to use them for swimming, but since I ran track, pads were just inconvenient. Sorry if that didn't make sense the first time, just thought I'd clarify.

Also, its only for protective reasons that my mother doesn't want her to use a cup, but the things she wants to protect her from aren't really applicable in the same way that they are with tampons.

I just wanted to share how happy I am with my cup with everyone, since I'm pretty sure my experience is relatively unique.

For the last 4 summers, I have been marching/playing with an all-age Drum and Bugle Corps. Basically, this is a marching band but with much more difficult music and drill. And its for people of all ages(12-200!). Since its for people of all ages, its only really active on the weekends, when a majority of people aged 12-200 don't work. So, with my period expected to arrive on a Friday, I knew that this weekend would be a test, regardless of what happened on or off the field.

I'm happy to say that my Lunette passed with flying colors. I didn't actually start bleeding until I got home tonight, but it was such a relief not to have to worry about leaking all day long, rather than every few hours, and to not go all the way to my backpack for a tampon before heading for the bathroom, just in case. I didn't begin my period due to stress from the weekend, but once me and my boy alleviated some of that stress, there it was, just as predicted.

So, for the few of you who participate in Drum and Bugle Corps activities, thats one less thing to bring on tour: disposables!

just wondering if anything strange happens when you swim with a cup in. does it affect the seal or make leaks more or less likely to happen or anything? i think my august vacation is going to involve my diva cup...!

Hello all!

Every now and then we get the slew of questions about can I use cups doing this, that, or the other activity, and the answer is usually yes, you can. However, I didn't remember anyone asking about riding roller coasters, and a quick search through the tags and memories confirmed that we'd discussed it briefly, but never really said yes or no definitely, so I thought a quick post might be in order.

I went to my favorite theme park yesterday, on a heavy day of my period, rode all the coasters, and my Divacup did just fine. Nary a leak. So, that in mind: roller coasters are a-ok with a cup in, if that's your cup of tea. :)

Just wanted to share that in case this question comes up in the future!

Here's a complication I didn't expect:

The knee/shin protectors in my biking pants, together with my boots, make it impossible to pull the pants down past my knees! This renders it impossible to get more than a hand width's worth of distance between my knees. Which, in turn, makes removing and inserting my cup rather awkward.  *lol*

But not impossible. I went on a biking/camping trip on the heaviest day of my period, and I'm proud to say that I had no problems. As well as pleased as punch!

Anyway, just one of those silly little things you'd never think of before you run into them. Thought some of you might find it amusing.

Hello all,

i've been reading the forum for a while and have found the information SOOO helpful. But i've got a couple of specific questions. i'm new to the whole cup deal - i ordered my first cup last month and its my first cycle using divacup, size 1, and so far so good. no problems inserting / can't feel a thing, no leaking .. but yes, it is still the honeymoon phase and i'm well aware of the possibilities of leaking etc.

but my questions ... i go to the gym every day (and really don't want to take a day off b/c of being new to cups) and my flow is quite light, but i would like to know if anyone has done pilates, yoga, bodypump or spin and how they coped. i've read the cycling thread and am quite confident about going to spin class tomorrow - but more importantly what about bodypump or yoga / pilates. the moves i'm concered about are things like squats or lunges? pretty much the moves where my legs are spread and gravety working against me ...

any help would be hugely apprechiated! :)

________________________

Addition: (15 comments so far)

Thanks guys, i read all the comments before embarking on my gym journey, i practiced at home for a little, jumped up and down, did a couple sqats, downward dog, etc and decided that i was ready to try spin first ...  and sucess - i was perspiring more than anything else and i ran to the bathroom after to double check - and wow - AMAZING ... i didn't even think about it while i was spinning (to much pain and out of breath) - and i was worried about the stem b/c yesterday i think it was a little too high that in different positions i could feel it. but no problems with that either.

next was bodypump *gasp* ... which is what i was a little more worried about - and i thought about it all through class, but it was only to get my mind of the pain of the sets, i actually didn't feel anything and it all worked out. i am fully impressed and am now a full convert. if only people told us about this sooner (im 24 and would have LOVED this in high school / college!) ...

thanks again !!! yoga is in a couple days, so fingers crossed (and yes, no upside-down for me -- although in a couple of days my cycle will be over i'm hopng ...)

I am back from my holiday.  Was expecting my period to start near the end of the holiday but trust it to be on time just this once as it started on day no2 of holiday.

it was a bit of a struggle the first day to remove it, but in the end i managed to get comfortable enough with it to be able to do it a few times a day and not stay in the bathroom for 30 min every time.

it was also a life saver when wanting to go in the hut pools and jacuzzis, and swimming was no problem. i was very impressed and forgot i was actually on me period sometimes. i did though have to resort to pads a few times when i felt like i needed to give my vagine a bit of rest from poking around in there but that was only a few times. i also started to panick the first couple of days and maybe emptied it a few times too many, but i was worried about having the cup full for too long and it maybe affecting me in some way, not sure how.  but it went well and i am actually looking forward to my next period so that i can practise more :)

one question though, i have not yet felt my cervix and do not know how it sits, low or high but the stem didn't stick out until near the end of my period.  it did annoy me a little bit but near the end of my period but am keeping it full lenght for now as i am not confident enough to be able to remove the cup without it.

so is it VITAL that i know how my cervix travels up or down during my period when things seemed to be working fine without me knowing?

thank u xx

Last week, a group of friends decided to try Aerodium, you know, that huge fan blasting tons of air that you happen to jump towards in order to propel yourself into the sky. Some people call it indoor skydiving, but ours was not indoors (in fact, it just had a liiittle fence to keep one from falling to the street below). Frankly, it's something I've always wanted to do, but I happened to have been on my period. Lovely. I had told my friends that I wasn't going to do it, and they just wouldn't leave it alone. "There's a special! It won't cost anything for an extra person!"

I really wanted to try it, but I did not want to have a cup mishap and spill blood all over myself while flying in the air. I wasn't wearing any back-up and hadn't emptied the cup in a good few hours. It was completely possible that it had reached capacity and could dribble over. Now, I knew that cups were approved for sports, but I'm pretty sure the menstrual cup testers didn't fling themselves towards a massive fan to test the cup's reliability.

"C'mon, Lauren, it's really safe!" said a friend as she signed the I-promise-not-to-sue-you-if-this-kills-me paper.

"It's not that," I confessed, "it's...I'm on my period."

"Me too! There's no way you're getting out of this. Sign the paper." Thus is the power of peer pressure. It didn't help that my husband was goading them all on, completely forgetting my little red friend.

"Ugh, fine!" I caved, "but if I bleed everywhere, it's your fault," I teased. Immediately I thought of this community and mustered up a sense of purpose. Whatever happens, I thought, I'll be the guinea pig for the girls here.

So, we suited up, put our ear plugs on, and had a blast. Believe it or not, my trusty Lunette held up during the whole intense experience. It didn't even leak once!

I will never doubt my cup again! :D

Thanks to the electronic age, I spend most of my time sitting in front of one screen or another.  But I do have an "outside job" that some of you have figured out involves motorcycles.  And yesterday was only the second time in a year that I have been scheduled to do a full day at that outside job on my heaviest day.  Because I get more "residual slobber" than I think I should at my desk job, I was quite paranoid and wore a full pad (not just a liner) as a back-up.  Well, my paranoia was for nothing.  I emptied my large Lunette 2-3 times in the porta-potty just in case it was filling faster than anticipated.  (Nope, no more than half full at any time.)  Despite all the walking, stretching, bending, flexing, on and off the bike a dozen times, my 90 mile commute sitting splayed on my bike, etc, there was barely a blip on my pad by the end of the day.

Came home exhausted, swapped for my (large) Mooncup because the Lunette felt funny, parked my (ample) butt in front of the TV and then went to bed early cos I just couldn't keep my eyes open any more.

In the middle of the night, I woke up to roll over, coughed and felt a blip.  Sh!t.  Got up to take care of it.  The Mooncup felt like it was in crooked.  Half-asleep, I swapped back to the Lunette because the Mooncup apparently didn't like how I was sleeping.  Hours later, now I'm back at my desk (TMI) with residual slobber all over my shield.

Conclusion: The less active I am, the more my cups leak.

Half-serious question: So could being more active be the cure to residual slobber???

Hi there!

I'm considering purchasing a menstrual cup (probably either the Diva or the Ladycup), and I was wondering if anyone has had experience using a cup while riding a bike. I'm an avid cyclist, and I'm a little afraid of menstrual cup leakage while I'm in the saddle.

Thoughts? Experiences? Suggestions? Any input would appreciated!

I have been using cups for 3 cycles now and thanks to all the info/help I have received from this wonderful community, it has been a very positive experience.  I have a large Keeper Moon Cup (Bought it before I knew about the controversy.) and a large Lunette (It was shipped from Leastore the day before the ban!  Hooray!)   Both cups have their stems trimmed almost to nothing.  My flow is normally super heavy days 1 & 2, then tapers a bit days 3-4, then is lighter for a few days. 

Last month I ran a half marathon on day 3 with my Keeper Moon Cup in and it worked great!  No leaks, no worrying about changing a tampon in a porta-potty moments before the start of the race.   I put my cup in 30 minutes before in the comfort of my hotel bath room.  When I checked after the race, it was about half full. Success!

This month, on day 1 (super heavy) I tried my Lunette on a 13 mile training run. I made sure my cup was positioned right, and off I went.  Was running great; then at mile 9, I felt my thighs chafing.  I looked down and there was dried blood on my thighs!  Huh?  I can tell when the cup is overflowing and I hadn't felt anything. 

When I got home, the cup was still positioned right, and was only half full when I removed it.   Aha!
"Residual Slobber" mixed with sweat.....looks like a lot of blood!  It also gives the illusion of "cup malfunction" or leaking!  I usually don't worry about the "slobber" because I always wear my cloth panty liners as back up.....but not when running!

The next day (still super heavy), I tried again with a modification.....after the cup was positioned perfectly, I wiped around the outside of the cup with my finger to make sure it was clean.  Ran 12 miles and had no problems!

If you are a runner, don't be afraid to use your cup....just position it right and check for "slobber"!

My cup is **AWESOME** <----- sung by choirs of angels! :D

It goes in easy, it comes out easy & no leaks... what more could a woman want?!

I have been using the punch down method, once it's in I run a finger around the "back" where the cup was folded to make sure it's fully open, then I run a finger around the "front" to make sure my cervix is on the correct side & then Bob's your uncle... or maybe that should be Bert's your aunt! :D

The only issues I has were that the stem was poking out. Once I was sure I could remove the cup without it I cut it completely off, problem solved!

When people tell you to go with your gut feeling... it's true!! After looking at all of the information on the different cups I thought that the small Lunette sounded like the best option for me. However I'm 34 and although I've not had kids I was worried that maybe I would need the width of the larger cup, even though the added length was a bit of a worry. So I ordered them both, just in case. As it turns out my gut was right, the small cup is the perfect size, it seals to my insides no problem. :)

As the seller didn't have the Selene in the smaller size... I might have to go & find one somewhere else... blue is my favourite colour after all! :D

This does mean I have a spare Lunette Selene large size that I am willing to "pass" on to an unfortunate resident of the US who cannot buy one directly. It's still in the (somewhat squashed) packaging, I just took it out to see the colour! Anyone interested contact me & we can talk ;)  

I shall now go & compose a post for my regular LJ to let all my girl friends know about cups & this community! :D

EDIT: I meant to say that my test also included riding my horse... if anything was going to cause it to leak, that would have been it... but nothing!

I'm on the last day of my first successfull period with a menstrual cup and it's been amazing.  Just after one week I don't think that I'd ever go back to disposable pads again (I never could use a tampon properly). 

( Very long post and probably TMI... )

Hi I'm 16 and Today was the first day I used my lunette selene. My period started in the middle of school and inserted it with no major issues. I had gym half an hour after I inserted it and the stem started to poke me a little. (This was fixed by the time I was done with gym, the cup must have migrated upwards.) The cup didn't leak at all during gym, but today we went to the weight room so I can't accurately judge how my lack of cup experience will stand up to running the mile in gym tommorow. Today in gym we only jogged for 3 minutes, did warm up exercizes including 15 sit-ups, and the weight room. (Weight room=step boxes/machines/bikes). Tommorow, we run the mile and I'm not sure how the cup will hold up. When I was jogging the stem poked me a little and I was concerned the cup might shift out of place. I only jogged 3 minutes and I plan to run for 9-10 minutes tommorow. No leaking so far and it's been around 6 hours (a first for any product I've used). My gym teacher has a rule that you can't use the bathroom in gym. He claims that you can use the BR when you change 5 minutes before class and 5 minutes after. SO if I have a leak it's murder, literally! Any advice? I'm exactly what you'd call athletic and the mile scares me enough already! I really want to get a good time and not have to worry about leaking/the cup.