Intro and Thanks!

First off I'd like to say a huge thanks to Melissa and the whole community for all the info they put out there, I think I read just about the whole LJ community and every single cup review I could find before buying my first cup. I don't have/want a LiveJournal though, so I'm so glad Melissa made this forum, I much prefer the forum format anyways

So now a little bit about me, I love to sew and crochet, but I'll do pretty much any craft out there. I'm very do-it-myself, if I can make it myself I will, or at least try, lol. I'm 23 years old, married, no kids (unless you count the furry one sitting next to me cleaning her paws). I first heard about cups many years ago and was completely horrified at the idea (then again at that time I was horrified at putting anything up there). Even though I'm not afraid of my own body anymore (me and her are good pals) I had forgotten about cups, I recently re-heard about cups on an online forum, the woman just sounded so smug about not having to buy disposables and this time something just clicked, and now I'm ticked at myself for not being more open minded years ago, all the money and time and sleep I could have saved (boo at having to wake up super early to change tampons, and hooray for being able to sleep in super late with cups!)

I started using cups about four months ago, my first cup was a diva cup, got it for fairly cheap on Amazon with free two day shipping, it was time for me to replenish my tampon/pad stash at the time so I figured even if I only used it for that period I wouldn't be out any cash. I also made myself some cloth pantyliners which I love, no more pads sticking in half and becoming uncomfortable and useless. Though now I don't really need to use them with my cup since I'm comfortable with cup placement now.
I also got myself a small and large orange Ladycup, they were so cute compared to the medical looking Divacup. Looking back on it I should have used the Diva a bit longer, figured out exactly what I needed in a cup, then went shopping for a new one, but oh well. I don't mind supporting cup companies since cups are so awesome, plus it's still way cheaper than using disposables.

So I'm still looking for the perfect cup for me, my ideal cup would be fairly wide (my cervix likes to move at night, and has "jumped" outside of my small ladycup) Easy to "boost" up (my Diva is super easy to boost, really can't use the large Ladycup because it just sqooshes when I try to push it up) Easy to "pop" open (Diva is a pain trying to get it to open, I recently enlarged the holes which will hopefully help, I love how the small Ladycup pops though, too bad it's just too smooshy to boost and too narrow) and I'd prefer one that has a solid stem just for cleanliness and comfort (had to sand the edges of my Ladystems cause they irritated me). I've been considering either the medium or large Meluna or the Large Lunette, I've heard the both pop well, and have good capacity/width, but I haven't ever seen anything about them being easy to push up from the base, so if anyone has these cups/has read my entire novel/could help me with this, that'd be great

Still, I freaking love my cups, every month my husband gets to hear about how awesome they are and how much I love my ladybits now, he's awesome though so he doesn't mind. My mom loves the idea, she had to have a complete hysterectomy because of uterine cancer but she said she wished she knew about them when she had a uterus, heh. My sister is completely grossed out by the idea which annoys me, I mean I was grossed out at one time, but I was a virgin then, I think if you're going to let someone else go exploring you better take the tour yourself first (and she's married, so she has no excuse for thinking it's "wrong" or "dirty" *sigh* )

Congrats to those who read this whole thing, sorry for being so wordy! And again, a huge thanks for all you ladies who've gotten info about cups out there, I owe you guys! (probably even more now that I've made you read all this, lol)

Welcome, we’re glad to have you!

When I was in my teens and up to age 20, I was really snooty about reusables (actually I didn’t know anybody used them, but if I had known, I’m sure I would have been grossed out, lol). And I was just terrified of internal products. The only reason I moved up to tampons at age 20, was because I started my period while visiting a friend, and all she had was tampons. I got over it and NEVER went back to pads… Then at 27, I found cups.

About the cloth pads vs. disposable-- I know! Lol. Even if a cloth pad does bunch, its easy to flatten out again when you visit the restroom. Can’t do that with a disposable, that fiber in the middle… When it decides to bunch, there is NO going back, lol. And plus the sticky part gets crinkled, so there’s just no helping that. Also with cloth pads, you feel way drier all the time and there’s no icky, overly-moist feeling. Who would have known??

So…. A cup that’s wider, easy to boost up, easy to pop open, and a solid stem…. Honestly, I think you’ve done your research well, and I agree, you pretty much nailed it with large Lunette and medium Meluna. They both have those qualities (although large Lunette a bit more in terms of capacity and being easy to coax up). Medium Meluna holds about the same amount of liquid as a small lady cup, to the holes. But despite holding more liquid, the large Lunette is still shorter than even small Diva.

We sound like twins, both are married in our 20’s, but consider our furry pets our kids, lol. My husband hears about cups a lot too, and he’s cool with it. He even asked to see mine once (while it was full!!). No kidding, he actually asked me to go in the bathroom and remove it so he could see what menstrual blood looked like. He said we women hide it like the Ark of the Covenant, and he was starting to wonder weather it actually existed, lol.

My mom was grossed out about cups at first, but is now a big supporter. One of my 15-year-old cousins is open-minded. But my other 2 cousins in their 20’s simply cannot be swayed… No matter how much you talk about how cups are actually CLEANER and SAFER than disposables, they still gag at the word “reusable” or at the idea of the blood being collected in a cup, rather than being absorbed… Sometimes its so frustrating…

I think weather you go with large lunette or medium Meluna, is really just a question of capacity. Perhaps you could collect both over time, and use one for heavy days, and the other for light days.. I confess, I do that. Heavy days, its small Lunette. Light days, its small Meluna.

Keep us updated on what you decide, hope you like hanging out here

Melissa569 wrote:My husband hears about cups a lot too, and he’s cool with it. He even asked to see mine once (while it was full!!). No kidding, he actually asked me to go in the bathroom and remove it so he could see what menstrual blood looked like. He said we women hide it like the Ark of the Covenant, and he was starting to wonder weather it actually existed, lol.

That's awesome, if all women had a conspiracy going on though, hopefully we could make up something better than menstrual blood, lol. (though the whole being able to grow a human thing is pretty cool, even if I don't want to do it, heh)

Melissa569 wrote:About the cloth pads vs. disposable-- I know! Lol. Even if a cloth pad does bunch, its easy to flatten out again when you visit the restroom. Can’t do that with a disposable, that fiber in the middle… When it decides to bunch, there is NO going back, lol. And plus the sticky part gets crinkled, so there’s just no helping that. Also with cloth pads, you feel way drier all the time and there’s no icky, overly-moist feeling. Who would have known??

I completely agree! No crinkly plastic noise, no smell, and have you ever accidentally washed a disposable pad in the washer? lol The worst part is definitely the adhesive though, they always either get stuck together, or worse, they stick to me, ouch... Cloth is so much more comfortable, and purty.

I think I may get myself either a Lunette Diana or Selene for a self birthday present, I love the color green and Diana/Artemis is my favorite Greek goddess so I'm leaning towards that one, the blue Selene is so pretty too though. I know it's silly, but the fact that it's named after my favorite goddess is a selling point (plus Lunette is a pretty name), that's another thing I don't like about my Divacup, I consider the term "diva" to be negative, heh. My flow tends to be pretty light, but my cervix moving up and out of my small ladycup has made me wary of the smaller widths, and I've heard the large Lunette is more "poppy" than the small one, which would be a plus. Size related comfort isn't really an issue, I think I'm one of the very few people that received their first cup and was shocked at how small it looked, lol.

And about the cleaner and safer thing, I trust myself to be able to clean a silicone cup more than I trust a giant corporation to cleanly mass produce wads of cotton that are handled by who knows what or whom, I used to love tampons but now that I think about what goes into making them and learning that they aren't even sterile, ick! I'll take touching a little of my own blood and having control of what goes into my own body any day. Yay cups!

"I trust myself to be able to clean a silicone cup more than I trust a giant corporation to cleanly mass produce wads of cotton that are handled by who knows what or whom"

Amen! lol. I am such a clean freak, I wash my cup with soap and hot water for a minimum of 30 seconds, inside and out, EVERY time I empty it, lol. they say washing your hands that way, for that amount of tims, is enough to kill most germs and prevent the sread of viruses and such. So I think it works for my cup, in addition to the boiling I do once a month right before I use it

I saw a commercial of Youtube about a disposable company in Japan that their how claim to fame was how sanitized each individual pad was. Each pad and tampon was individually wrapped and all this stuff. I wasn't sold cause I don't like the idea of throwing all that trash into the environment. Plus those where very expensive disposables. Talk about saving some money when you switch to a cup. I also do like the idea of it being me who is in charge of how clean my cup and cloth pads are. I am just waiting for some pad/tampon recall that is due bad manufacturing and causing all these women to get serious infections. Oh...wait that happens already...TSS but no recall.

I love my reusables so much for just these reasons! I'm a control freak who likes to save money, so with my pads/cup I get to have control over how they're cleaned (plus since I make my own pads I get control over those too, lol) and they save me so much money! I was always so paranoid about TSS that I always changed tampons every 6 hours, which meant waking up super early and trying to get back to sleep, plus I have a pretty light flow so sometimes they were pretty dry when I took them out, talk about uncomfortable.