Menstrual Cups

My first Lunette use

As I said, I wanted to make this as informative as possible for those who have never experienced a cup. So it includes pictures.... go back now if that bothers you.

Day 1 - Day 2

Day 1
I put the cup in around lunchtime, went in easily, as it had with my dry run. A few hours layer when I wiped there was a slight tint of pink on the paper, but that could have been residual blood from before I put the cup in or I might not have made the seal properly.

I didn't check through the day, figuring I'd feel it if I started leaking. (I was wearing a pad). I again could feel the cup was there, but not uncomfortable, just aware of its presence. It actually felt empowering.... almost like I was defying conventions heh. And I had a cough, but the cup seemed happy even through coughing fits.... so that was good. (unlike the "squidge" without internal protection)

I took it out at around 6 hours later. Not being familiar with how much blood I actually loose, or how the cup works when full, I wasn't sure how to remove it cleanly. I also have longish fingernails, which I am discovering does not help at all...

I was sitting on the toilet, and trying to find the top of the cup to break the seal, but couldn't reach it... I got close, and pushed it in, and heard a sucking/squelching noise which signalled it had broken the seal :) I pushed down with my muscles and I pulled it, to get it further down. I tried to find a way to fold it to make it come out easier, but couldn't seem to do it. In fact I couldn't seem to really be able to do anything with one hand.... and I was worried I'd overflow it by squeezing it too hard.

Of course the long fingernails and lots of skin in the vagina does not a happy couple make...

How does one actually fold it to take it out? I actually don't know..... some more research in in order I think....

In the end, I just squeezed into a flatter shape (probably the least helpful shape to try and get out through a round hole, but eh, it seemed the best option at the time) and "beared down" as I pulled it out.... I sort of popped one side out first then the other. Which was uncomfortable, but not painful. Considering it was a brief thing to get it out, its nothing.

I then carefully lifted it up to look at it. Then laughed..... spill it indeed! There was only a little bit of blood in the bottom!

The Lunette measuring lines are 7.5ml and 15ml.. and this was not even to the bottom measuring line. maybe about a teaspoon full? (about 5mls that would be I think)I was also really surprised at how clean it was. I was expecting my hand and the whole cup to be covered in blood.... much like a tampon would be.

I should have realised that since my pad had only a slight look of wetness (it was a deep purple, in hindsight not the best to choose when testing out to see if I leaked), and toilet paper had only a slightly pink discolouration.. I must not have leaked enough to make the whole cup bloody, but I was still expecting it.

The outside was virtually as clean as it went in, just a little blood on the rim. There was some darker red/brown mucousy looking blood inside near the rim on one side, mixed with some bright red thinner stuff.

Here are some pics... The side with blood on it, the clean side and inside (showing the bloody side).. This is exactly as it was when I removed it. I haven't cleaned anything off or prettied it up at all.

You can see the blood sort of separates, with the top layer being a clearer colour and the bottom layer being a darker thick liquid. Since this was my first go, I'm sure that heavier flow days or just different days will make the cup more messy, fuller and perhaps filled with more tissue type loss or whatever...

I also had basically no blood on my fingers either.

So then I thought I'd show how easy it was to clean. I decided to celebrate my first collected blood by keeping it for painting with, so I poured that into a little jar. Then I wiped the cup out in a quick no fuss manner.... one swipe with the toilet paper and all blood was gone (no smeary stuff happening like I'd expected and no scrubbing, literally I grabbed a wad of paper stuffed it into the cup, turned it once and took it out).

Here is the wiped cup: Because I gave it just a quick wipe, the blood remained in the air holes and a little around the rim... I was on purposely not going overboard with cleaning, just a little wipe as you would in an absolute hurry.

Now, personally I'd have put it back in like that, except for the fact I don't want paper fibres inside me... and I also wanted to give it a quick rinse to see how easy that was...

so I ran the tap over the outside briefly, and filled it, placed my palm over the cup and pushed the cup into my palm, which shot water out of the holes, cleaning those. No wiping needed, the water rinsed off every last trace of blood. Seriously it was a really quick rinse and everything came off. So here it is again, rinsed this time:

So that done, time to put it back in again. Now because I'd taken all these pics and taken a bit of time, I was worried I'd be a bit messy to insert the cup as I had been, which was sort of sprawled on the bed... so (as I didn't want to risk dropping it in the toilet) I tried squatting over the floor to do it... which may not have been a good idea.... it sort of went in too quick, but I also got a muscle cramp in my stomach (like external not internal), and I had to stand up quickly to relieve that, so the cup was thrust in rather quicker and ruder than would normally have happened... so its not a thing to hurry.

So then I thought I'd take a pic of something you might consider bizarre.... but I wanted to show how not messy it was...

I thought a pic of my fingers was in order...

This is as messy as my fingers got inserting it again... only the middle one got any blood on it (from trying to poke the cup up, like I would a tampon).

And thats about how messy my fingers were when I took the cup out.

Which if you were using the cup in a public restroom, would be basically not noticeable.

(excuse the fingernails, a manicure is the last thing on my list of priorities!)

About 2 mins later I got bad stomach cramps (as in the gastric "I need to poo!" kind, not uterine, "period pain" kind).. and spent the next about 10 mins on the toilet.

I'm not sure if it was because of the cup or not.... I often have an "upset stomach" in the first days of my period anyway - I figure its all the uterine contractions going on, tries to push everything out... maybe.... Anyway, because I thought it might be the cup and my vagina not being happy at me for that squatting stunt, I decided to take it out...But again... issues with removal. This time the spillage was not an issue, but gripping anything without spearing myself with the nails was becoming hard, so I again basically just pulled it out as is (open this time though). About 15 mins later I felt all back to normal.... So not sure if it was from the cup or not.

So there you go...... not nearly as messy as I anticipated, but a little harder to remove than I expected.... and I don't know if I am prepared to sacrifice my nails to the Lunette..... hmmm

Day 2 A heavier day. I put the cup in around 11am. Because I was bleeding more heavily than the day before, it was a little more messy, but not that bad:

I still found it pretty easy to put in, despite not being able to hold it as neatly as I probably could have. It goes in ok, just feels a little less than elegant :)

I took the cup out at about 6pm.... Again, trouble geting it folded to take it out, so I didn't worry about spillage, and took it out as best I could. It was a fuller than it was the day before.

And my fingers did get messy that time.... I couldn't take a pic because I was juggling the full cup....and I decided to just wash them and not take a pic. So that was 13mls (minus whatever was spilled when getting it out - which I think was some).....

So that was day 2...

I'd like to add that with a bit of practice, taking it out became easier - though I still don't fold it, and I didn't cut my nails. I still do get cramps if I let the cup open up too quickly - but taking it out and trying again stops them, and I don't get the cramps the second time.

when I use the cup I have a much greater flow each day - now I'm getting 3 full cups on my first day, and just slightly less on my second day, but then it eases off, and my period is shorter than when using just pads.