Hello, I'm the moderator :)

Welcome to the community! I hope you feel comfortable here. I'm the moderator, my name is Melissa. My 2 screen names here are "Melissa569", and "Admin". If you have any quesitons or concerns, please contact me by clicking on the little envelope on the right side of your screen, to send me a private message.

As for some personal details on me-- some of you may know me from LiveJournal, YouTube, WordPress, Facebook, etc. I have menstrual cup pages in those places too. I was born in 1981, I'm married (no kids yet) and I work from home. I have almost all the brands of cups, most of which were free donations to me for my web pages. In my spare time, I like to browse the internet, and help educate women on menstrual cups, because I believe they are wonderful!

You may start your own topic in this thread for your introduction, or post it in a reply to this one. Have fun browsing!

Hello! My name is Leslie and I'm 36 years old and still pretty new to cups. I have followed livejournal for several months and got some very useful info there. I am a complete convert after my 2nd cycle and have become fascinated by cups and their users. Thanks for creating a new forum for us! I look forward to some great discussions and new perspectives!

Welcome Leslie! Glad to have you on board, nice to see a new member making herself right at home

Hello
I am Teresa, aged 44 and I live in the UK. In August 2008 I started an online business selling reusable menstrual products, which now includes a vast range of menstrual cups.
After recently giving birth to my 4th child I have not been able to try menstrual cups as I discovered them while I was pregnant. I am now anxiously awaiting my first period so that I can try them out :-)

Hello, my name is michelle, i'm 27 and still thinking about it all! I've been following the livejournal community for a week but had no interest in retrieving my old account.
I live in Australia, i'm thinking i'll get the lunette partly for the dimensions and to support a company that went through the hard work of getting approval here.

Hi everyone,
I'm Mel, also in Australia and new to the whole menstrual cup thing.

For as long as I have been aware of menstruation, I remember walking past a regular market stall that sold what I assume is The Keeper, and thinking "gross!" - more recently I noticed that the same stall sells a little waterproof towel to prevent there being a wet spot! All in all too much to contemplate, especially as it's in my grandparents city so I only ever visited said market with them!

About a month ago, a blogger I've been reading regularly mentioned she uses a Mooncup (US I think) & given how normal she seems, decided to actually look into it.

And ordered my Lunette Selene last week, with tribute to Melissa for her comparison page. Just waiting for it to arrive from NZ.

So, hello & thanks for introducing me to the concept!

Hello Ladies and thanks to Melissa for this new forum. It'll be nice to be able to be a more chatty sometimes.

I've used cups for 3 cycles only, but I'm definitely a convert. I wish I'd found them years ago.

Hey ladies, great to see how many of you dropped over! Teresa-- I see you got the registration to work, that's good. Look forward to hangin with all of you here

Hello to each of you, ladies

Ah Melissa, thank you one more time.. All your pages really are innovative, instructive and simply nice.. And that's a great idea having created this new international forum . I mean, the disposition is very clear and peaceful.. pleasant .
Also, some sections look very clever, such as " Not A Virgin, But Not A Mom", " After Childbirth (Moms)" and especially "Pre-Menopause And Cups" _ This is a category I guess I never saw on a forum before. Oh well done.. that must be necessary as the body changes a lot physically, physiologically, even anatomically, and emotionally during this period.

Plus, I guess the "Other Languages" part is perfect : everyone would be able to share and discuss !
Hé hé!

So let's introduce.. My name is Quitterie. I'm 27 years old and come from France.
As soon as I dicovered the existence of the menstrual cups, I felt deeply intrigued, and I'd say, absolutely fascinated..

I've been using cups for 4 years now, and have several brands. In case you feel curious, here is a list of the ones I own :
Mooncup, Divacup, Keeper, Moon Cup (the silicone Keeper cup from the usa), Lunette, Femmecup, Ladycup, Miacup, Fleurcup and also tried Softcup Instead (the disposable and diaphragme-shaped cups).

I tried both sizes for every cup, except for the Keeper and the Moon Cup cups (I only have the small sizes), and only one Femmecup as there is one unique size.
Humm now, I admit the Yuuki, MPower, Naturcup and MeLunas are trying to seduce me haha....

Simply for the anecdote, I also tried the sea sponges a very few times, as the organic diposable tampons and pads, the Beppy soft tampons, or even a baby sock rolled and used as a tampon. And just once, a reusable cloth pad and just once too, a washable Inipad (that is an inter-labial devise ; I used ones created by Obsidian, that I ordered on her clothpads's website) etc.. I guess you understand what I meant when I said I was pretty fascinated by.. let's say womanhood.. ..

I currently am active on a French forum entitled "EasyCup", (and have the same username there.)
Actually, it looks fairly similar to this place as for the disposition of the page, and the atmosphere...

Everything should be okay for all the welcomed new cupers here .. You'll certainly feel free and so feminine.
Many many kisses to you all !

(Oh I just forgot to say you look very pretty, Melissa ! )

Thanks quitteri And again, welcome to all new posters! Can't wait to see how this turns out. I don't have a problem with lots of posts, just as long as they are real conversation by real memebrs, and not those pesky spammers, hahaha. I'm hoping this will turn into a really fun place for all of us!

Hi, I'm Ashley, I'm 20 and a college student in the US. I've been using menstrual cups for over a year now, and have been a definite convert since the day I got mine, and have never looked back.
I managed to get my Lunette before they stopped being able to send them to the US, and couldn't be happier with it. But now all these great pretty colored cups keep appearing, and I'm tempted to try out some other brands so I can have a pretty colored cup too!

Welcome Ashley! I say go ahead and try a colored one, they are fun. More like little fashion accessories than menstrual products. I love them!

Hi, I'm Nic, known on the LJ community as pepperoni86... as a side note, nickerockers is also my xbox live gamertag so if anyone wants to add me im there... internet is slow at home and lag is an issue with games so I dont play online much but im always up for a chat

anyhow, back on track. I'm 22 (soon to be 23), from Australia, I'm a uni student (5 weeks away from finishing a double degree in social work and human services wooo!) and I'm the one who has had trouble getting my cup sent to me from an ebay seller - although a couple of emails have resulted in a second femmecup being sent to me, with a "suprise gift" included as an apology - cant wait to see what it is! They also refunded some of the purchase price - but it amounts to $2.00 or so so its not much but its appreciated Hopefully I wont have to wait ANOTHER cycle before it turns up.

I'd like to say thanks melissa for all the info you hand out. There are literally hundreds of women in the LJ community with wisdom to share, but I'd like to acknowledge your (excellent) youtube vids as my first source of info - you were also the one who pointed me to the community in the first place.

Heres hoping that my femmecup gets to me soon! with all the info that you gals have provided, I'm also very confident of making it work

Thank you for the kind comments, Nic I sure hope your Femmecup comes soon. It would be your first cup, right? I have one of those, its just like mooncup UK, only the material is a little different. They are mostly just alike in shape. But a great alternitive for women who can't manage to get MCUK, or for anyone who prefers a softer middle to their cup (less pressure on the bladder/urethra).

Keep us up to date, let us know when you get it!

Hi! Great forum! I'm sol_i_nord, I'm 22 and have just been using cups for a couple of months. Again: great forum

Welcome sol_i_nord, glad to have you on board! Hope you like it here, the mroe the merrier!

Hello all,

I'm Claire from the UK and I'm 41 with 2 children. I heard about menstrual cups 3 months ago when a friend said I should look at getting one. I was intrigued by the idea because for years I've been fed up with using tampons and trying to make sure I have some in the house and my handbag. I hadn't heard of any type of reusable menstrual products so a new world opened up! Being in the UK I bought a Mooncup as that's the only one I could find in the shops and I've just finished my first period using it....it took a couple of months for me to dredge up the courage to try it. Once I was using it I then found livejournal site and the YouTube videos which really helped me to relax and know I made the right choice....it's a steep learning curve isn't it!!

My first time with my MCUK was fairly successful...I spotted a fair bit so I had to use panty liners. I'm sure with time I'll get better! I also learnt where my cervix sits and having measured I decided to buy a Fleurcup which arrived yesterday from femininewear's website. So now of course I have to wait a whole month...how strange to be looking forward to my period! I've also got my eye on a Miacup and am now worried I'm starting a collection.

Hi all,
I'm Michelle and I'm a 19 year old university student hoping to find a fun career in digital art/media in a couple years. I live in Southern Ontario, Canada and have been using a small Diva for almost two years now (will be two years in April). I recently got a medium blue MeLuna just for kicks because I thought the ball stem was adorable. I don't know where I'd be without my cup, or how people would deal with me - or how I'd deal with myself - if I was still using pads!

I'm totally envious of all the cups you have, Melissa. The comparison pictures are so useful, and so pretty, haha.

Hello,

I'm Carme, from Spain. I'm a new user of cups -on my second period now- but I must say I simply love it. Had some problems the first time with the insertion, now perfectly resolved with the punch-fold I found at
I want to thank you, Melissa, for your post at that comunity about the secure cleaning of the cup. Great.
Just found now your blog at wordpress, gonna pay a visit.
Having the more comfortable and cleanest periods ever,

Carme

sorry, the link was
Don't know why the first time didn't appear

Carme

hi, i'm hairballsplat from over on LJ. I'm 33, have two kids, been using cups and cloth pads for 6 months. I read as much info as I possibly could on LJ before I got a cup, decided on a Lunette and then discovered I couldn't get one in the US (easily.) I started with a large Diva and then got a large LadyCup. As the bad American greedy consumer I am, I want all the cups....I think Melissa's right, they're kinda like a fashion accessory. But then I'm defeating the purpose of buying a cup and saving money right? Currently, I'm trying to get my sister and my niece to decide on a cup because I told them I'd buy them for them for Christmas. I want to convert EVERYONE. Or at least let everybody in the world know about them. But I'm semi-shy and not raised by a mom of a generation that didn't discuss that kind of thing much. Trying to overcome that. Can't wait til my daughter is old enough to use cups cause she'll have such better options than previous generations.

(Can't get my entire username in the username spot above...or maybe i'm not using the correct username...i'm so confused...sorry)

Welcome to all new members! This forum seems to be taking off, lovely to see you all here!

Hi Everyone! I'm Dru, I'm 48 and have been using cups for 8 months. I discovered the LJ group about a month after getting my first cup. I was so excited when I saw the posting about this group. Thank you, thank you, Melissa for setting this up for us!

Hello

I am Eli. I am 29, two children, Norwegian. I got my first cup (Moon Cup) less than one month ago, and have just finished my first period as a cup user. Even though I did have some beginners problems (finding the righth angle, where the cup should be inside of me, what to do with that stem, etc.), I allready know that this is just right for me!