What do your friends and family say about the cup?

Well, I told my sister. She is mostly just curious about it I think. She has PCOS so she has no period so she doesn't need a cup.. or anything else for that matter!. I told my mom I got a cup and she was like, "What's that!!!?" and I told her and she told me that's totally disgusting and that I shouldn't "fall into it." (no pun intended) I asked her if she would get me a keeper about 10+ years ago but she refused. (She must have forgotten about me saying it back then when I told her this time.) I guess she didn't know how important it was to me to have something besides tampons! It kind of hurts my feelings a little bit but I just laugh it off.
My husband doesn't care if I want to use a cup. I think he is getting sick of hearing about it. He just wants me to be safe.

aw my mum was negative at first but then she tried out my small lunette and now i bought her a large green donna fortunately my gyno is open-minded, she'd not heard of them before i asked but she said it sounds safe so mum let me get one. i was excited, showed her vids, gave links and she was like, well i'll see how it works for you and then i'll maybe get one for myself well, on one period she got tired of pads, asked whether she could try my cup but ended up not trying yet. next time she finally tried and although it wasn't fun - lunette stuck out, she had air coming out all the time and then the cup got squished and leaked - it was enough to convince her that she just needed a cup that fits her better, amazing how similar we seem to be down there i sooo hope that the green donna i got will work for her
oh and other family members mostly don't like the idea of wearing something internally, well most of them don't need anything anymore anyway. my aunt has a degree in economics and she's the first person who actually counted whether she indeed spends that much on pads in 4 months. she doesn't and i was like, what about in a year oh well at least she knows about them and i forgot to ask her to mention them if her friends complain how much they hate their periods.. because cups have really changed my life for the better and i hope there'll be more awareness in some time. people should have a choice, not use pads because they hate the idea of tampons and have no clue there are alternatives.
meh i'm rambling... now that i think of it, i'm glad i didn't know about cups before i was ready. my cervix off my period hasn't changed since i first found it when i was maybe 13, so it must've been low all my life, but i'm fairly sure i wouldn't have succeeded with a wide cup back then. it would've been really frustrating to know there's something better but be unable to use it.. and did anything but the divacup and moon( )cup exist anyway

whatever, i'm happy i've already had 4 periods that were way better than the... 120 ones since i got my first when i was 9. omg.

What did your mom say about it at first? I will never convince my mom. She is too old and doesn't have a period anymore. I wonder what kind of flow she had, since she never seemed to hate it like I hate it. I am glad she used tampons or I would have probably used pads all these years. Nothing can be as bad as pads! But anyway, maybe people are scared of cups because they don't know about them. I mean, I was scared of tampons when I first started out. I wasted a whole box learning how to use one. If the cup was disposable, I probably would have wasted more than a whole box of them.
I didn't get over my period anxiety until I was in my 20's, when I took birth control to make it much less. My mom didn't know how bad my anxiety was about it or maybe she would have gave in a little bit!

idk i hate pads but tampons seem even more unhygienic to me better to have this piece of cotton soaked in blood outside your body than IN it

That reminds me, when you are wearing a cup, can you feel the blood moving around inside since it is not being absorbed?

i don't feel anything with a cup in
only the natural discharge coming out (this is what you might take for leaks at first )

Well I am glad to know that! I don't think I am going to go anywhere I don't have to on the day I get my period and I try my cup!

good luck with it

Everyone in my family (and some friends) has had mixed reactions. Or they would if I told them, because some I haven't yet.

My husband-- VERY curious and totally supportive. One time, he actually asked me to go in the bath room, tight now, take the cup out, then bring it back and show it to him!. I was like.... Why??? lol. He said because period blood was like a mystery to men. Most people freak out about it, but most men have never even seen it! Sometimes he wasn't even sure if it existed, lol.

So I did it. When I brought it out, he looked at it with interest, and said "Cool." Of course he is the ONLY person I would ever do that for.

My Mom-- Oh she COMPLETELY freaked out when she first heard about it! lol. She thought it was the most vile and horrible thing she has ever heard of. But 2 years later, she is 100% supportive (my biggest supporter, actually) and even helps me advocate. She just needed time.

My 15-year-old cousin Racheal-- She alternates between pads and tampons. 2 weeks after I told her about cups, she came up to me and asked, "Hey Melissa, do you think I could have one of those cup things??" I respected her for it, so I gave her one.

My 20-something year old cousins Nikki and Amber-- Nikki completely rejected it and still does. Amber is kind of "on the fence".

My 18-year-old cousin Robert-- Shockingly, he was actually interested! He watches my videos and passes them on to girls he knows.

My Dad-- Surprised to find out that there was something else. Had a few questions. Looked at the websites I gave him. He doesn't go into detailed discussion, but he's extremely supportive, and he just called me an hour ago to say he bought me $100 worth of books to be delivered to my house-- all books on how to be asuccess with small businesses and internet businesses (because I have the online store and all).

My brother Brad-- He's always been squeamish abotu period stuff, but when he visited me 2 weeks ago, he did listen about cups as me and mom told him. He even watched me show him the folds. I think being married and wathcing his wife have a baby has changed him a bit

My brother Joey-- Pretty much the same as my dad.

My friend Crystal from back in high school-- She was surprised! We had lost touch for 10 years. She was researching alternative menstrual products online, and accidently stubled on my videos!! She contacted me, and after some old-time greeting and catching up, I sent her a cup. She loves it!!!

My best friend Alishia-- Haven't told her yet, but she would probably be 50/50.

My sisters-- I'm not sure what they would say.... My sister Anita used to be a nurse, so she would probably have a medicl opinion about it. My sister Mandi-- knowing her, I woudl say she'd probably totally freak out at first. Then later she would either decide to reject it like Nikki, or accept it like our Mom did.

Wow! That's interesting! I would have thought that your whole family would have been supportive, as much as you love the cup!
By the way, yesterday I did a search on yahoo images for menstrual cups and somebody had taken pictures of their full menstrual cup and put it on the Internet!

Ah yes, that was Obsidian, she lives in Australia. She actually inspired me.

Geez Melissa, you've really done your research! Since you gave me her name, I went back to yahoo and searched for her name and went to her site where I could read everything she wrote about it. I read about her first experience and it is quite informative. I am just wondering how mine will be! I hope it is as easy as hers.