With so many menstrual cup choices out there
and the conflicting information on sizing guidelines from the brands,
it's hard to know what size menstrual cup you are.
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That's where Put A Cup In It comes in
and we're here to help you navigate
the very confusing sizing guidelines that are out there.
So keep watching our video.
It's a long one but we promise it's worth it.
Are you a 1 or a 2?
Or maybe an A or B?
Or perhaps you're a small or a regular?
There are so many different names
for the sizes for menstrual cups.
And not to mention, there's different information
from each brand on where you fit into their sizes.
There's no sizing standard in the menstrual cup world.
So for one brand, their size 1 or their size A or their size small
might be very close or even the same as
another brand's size large or their B or their regular.
And it's hard to know how, 1) do we even measure our vaginas.
"I can't help it if I've got a heavy flow and a wide-set vagina."
It's based typically on diameter
when these brands talk about their sizing.
And if you fit one size small for one brand
or their large on another brand.
So this is where we come into the Put a Cup in It territory
because we have made so many different resources
that help you, not only, find the right size
but find the right fit and all these other things
that go into picking a menstrual cup.
Let's talk about how brands size their cups first.
Because that's where we need to start before we go any further.
"Nerd alert"
Typically, a size 1 or a size small or a size A,
as different brands call them,
will say if you're under 30 and you haven't given birth then you are the size 1.
And if you are over 30 and/or you have given birth, you're a size 2 or size large or size regular.
See, it's very confusing.
Obviously, this is not a black and white guideline.
And not to mention, it's not always clear what they mean by giving birth.
But one of those things I'll clear up for you now.
When a brand says on their sizing guidelines that you have given birth,
they mean you have full-term pregnancy.
They do not mean that you've had a vaginal delivery.
So, if you have had a caesarian section
and you were full-term, your muscles in your body,
still prepared for labor, everything kind of relaxed
and got looser in your pelvic floor area.
I am not a pelvic floor expert
but this is just my understanding of how this works.
And so, you would pick the larger diameter.
All the brands are talking about when they say size 1 or size 2 is diameter.
They are not factoring in the length of a cup.
And the length is actually more important than the diameter,
but we do want to get you the right cup in both areas.
Again, it gets confusing.
but we're going to help you through it.
In the diameter world for a menstrual cup,
when you're talking about a small,
usually starts at about 35mm across.
That's a wide diameter.
And goes upwards to about 43mm,
which is a pretty big difference.
In fact, this brand, Super Jennie,
this is their small.
It's 43mm.
And several of our other large brands
are also 43mm across.
Not this one.
But there are several that are 43mm across.
So there's gray area where some of them
are the same size as the size 2.
And then the size 2 or the size larges go up to about 48mm.
We don't some sort of caliper or measurement device that will say
how wide our vaginas are.
And honestly, you don't really need that.
There's a lot of things that you can do
to understand what might work for you
ahead of picking a menstrual cup.
Even better, if you're already a menstrual cup user
you'll have way more of an idea
what will work for you diameter-wise
than someone who's never tried the cup.
But, what size tampon you use
has nothing to do with what size menstrual cup you'll use.
So if you used a super tampon before using a menstrual cup or trying one,
that does not mean you need a super-sized cup.
* laughing *
When you're picking the diameter
and you're going based on that under 30,
or over 30, or given birth or haven't given birth,
another thing you really need to keep in mind
is if you have a healthy, muscular, toned pelvic floor.
If you had a baby, that might not be the case.
But if you have worked on it
with pelvic floor therapy, perhaps you do.
And most of us don't really understand
what our pelvic floor toneness or health or abilities are,
until we use a menstrual cups.
So, one of the hints you have a weaker pelvic floor
could be that you are urinating
when you jump or sneeze.
"Wet your pants."
"Well even the best of us have an occasional accident."
So you may say there you weaker pelvic floor muscles,
you probably need a wider cup to keep it in place.
Another thing that makes picking a menstrual cup size confusing
is that rather than sizing by diameter,
some brands actually size by flow.
How much the cup actually holds.
So, rather than saying there's a sizing issue
for before giving birth under 30,
after giving birth over 30,
they'll say if you have a light flow to pick a smaller cup
and if you have a heavier flow to pick a larger cup.
This is also not exactly the best way to pick a cup.
Really you want something that fits comfortably and stays in place.
And lengthwise, again we'll get to that, fits inside your vaginal canal.
And with a cup, if you are a super heavy bleeder,
you do want to consider the capacity of the cup and how much it holds.
But that really comes later.
You want something to fit first.
So if you have a super light period, you may not have the muscle or tone to hold the smaller cup.
And yea, you don't need the bigger cup's capacity, but you need it to stay in place.
And that's really what I'm trying to get across.
The cup widthwise needs to stay
in place as you're wearing it, not slipping down.
So you want the diameter to match
that floor tone and that vaginal muscle tone.
Because you can always expand your vagina.
You can always expand to hold something.
Come on.
Think for a minute about
what goes in and what comes out.
It can stretch, but it cannot clench around a cup that's too small.
We do not have these massive cavernous vaginas.
So if you had a delivery,
and I don't care if you delivered a 15lb baby
or you delivered a 6lb baby,
That has nothing to do with where your vagina is,
in terms of what it can hold and what it can fit.
The baby did not blow out your vagina, just like in my sessions,
I usually to tell the joke that when you turn 30 and you blow out your candle
your vagina goes * blowing sound * and expands to a size 2 vagina.
That's not how it works either, so.
Again, we want to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about
how to pick a menstrual cup size and get down to what really matters.
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So, getting down to what really matters is all about length.
I want to get out one of my prime examples.
This is the Lily Cup brand.
And Lily Cup brand, it's a great cup. It's super soft. I really like the cup.
But it doesn't work for the vast majority of people who use cups. Mainly because it's too long.
It is the longest cup on our chart.
If you do our menstrual cup comparison chart,
we're linking that in our video description.
Make sure you sort by length.
The longest top, at the top of the chart and the shortest at the bottom,
Lily Cup will come up first. It is just a long cup. Diva Cup's not far behind.
And Diva Cup one of the most available cups on the market so a lot of people have
a negative experience with Diva Cup because they find it's too long for them.
They feel discomfort while they're wearing the cup.
And it's just because they feel the cup because it's too long for them.
And this all has to do with the location of our cervix.
This will be a quick demonstration but you need to know where your cervix is
when you are picking a menstrual cup.
Probably well above how wide or not you are.
That's such a crude term but that's what I need to say.
How do you find out where your cervix is?
It's simple.
You may not like it, but you need to do it.
You need to measure where your cervix is.
While you're in the shower is a good time to do this.
Stick a finger inside.
Reach and locate your cervix.
You're cervix will feel very similar to the tip of your nose.
It has like this spongy, resistance kind of feeling.
Not everyone can find their cervix.
But if you can't find your cervix,
it's mostly because it's too high,
which is actually good.
So reach inside and locate the cervix.
If you can't reach it, we'll, hopefully, assume that it's high.
And it could be towards the side or towards the back or towards the front,
depending on where your cervix is tilting, if it's tilting at all.
So find that and then what I would say is, if you can see this,
put a thumb right where your inner lips end.
So inside the inner lip, place a thumb and then remove that.
Take this and measure to the tip of your finger to your thumb.
And then take those numbers,
we use inches or we use the metric version, we have both on our chart.
Any cup below that number is going to work for you.
I should add you should do this during your cycle.
Even do it on the first day of your cycle and the last day of your cycle
and see what the difference is and use the lowest measurement.
Because you want a cup that will fit on the lowest point where your cervix is.
And it moves up and down during your cycle.
So use the lowest number that you received during your measuring.
So that is how to find where your cervix is and measure accurately.
Now you want to get to a capacity.
And let's say you found where your cervix is
and you have a good idea of whether you would be a small or a large in our menstrual cup world.
But you have a super heavy flow.
If you have a super heavy flow, you may be emptying your cup as much as every hour.
This is extremely rare.
A menstrual cup usually holds about 30ml for the size 2.
And the average menstrual cycle is between 30 and 60ml.
So, if you're thinking about that, you would only fill up a cup once,
or even twice over if you're on the high end of average.
But there are some people who bleed so much — over 200ml a cycle. And during that very first heavy day
or second day, even a 30ml capacity cup will not hold what they're outputting.
So finding a cup that works within all the other parameters
that also has a high capacity could be worth it for you.
We do have on our chart, you can sort by capacity and sort by the highest capacity.
Merula will hold 50ml.
I don't have one here but Super Jennie holds about 41.
And this one their size 2 is quite a high diameter.
But the Merula is a little bit slimmer.
And another one is Yuuki.
So you want to kind of do this,
Actually if you're into photography,
there's a triangle of things you need to achieve for a good picture.
You need the perfect triangle of ISO and f-stop and shutter speed.
And so it's exactly the same for menstrual cups.
You want to get it in a range where it's the size/diameter plus the length plus the capacity.
And if you can find one that fits within that triangle,
then you have your perfect menstrual cup.
But if all the one on the market are too wide or too long for you,
pick the one that holds the most you can find
within those other two parameters.
And then just empty it more often.
It's not ideal, during the first or second heavy day,
but you can always use period underwear
or back up cloth pads, if you need them.
And that goes for anyone who has a cycle
who might have a heavy flow or some light leaks.
And this all is more confusing because each brand has their own designation of what small or large is.
So again, rather than trusting what they say is small or large,
just use our menstrual cup comparison chart
and look to see what their actual measurements are.
You'd be surprised how different they are
but also how narrow that distinction is.
So even a size 2, and I'm always going to say this to anyone who asks,
if you are confused and you aren't sure if it's going to be a size 1 or size 2,
go with a size 2.
Because again, you can accommodate, but you cannot shrink and hold on to a cup.
First it's length, find the cup that fits within your vaginal canal
comfortably with everything inside.
You can always trim the stem, if you need to, if that's going to be too long.
Then pick one, size 1 or size 2, size A or size B,
size small or regular, or mini or original,
like there is a million terms,
and pick the one that fits diameter-wise.
This is... this is a long video, but I think it's really important for people
to understand that you don't need to go based on the brand's wording
because it is... there's such a grey area.
And all of this to say that if you are completely, completely overwhelmed with your choices,
Just take our quiz. The quiz asks you nine questions,
some of which include your cervical height,
and I just told you how measure it,
and the toneness of your pelvic floor,
any sort of urine leaks .. birth history.
And all of those things together, if you answer those questions
to the best of your ability and accurately as possible,
we can actually give you a list of cups that are most likely to work for you.
And our quiz has really fantastic results and it has a great reputation for being really accurate overall.
But if you're an experienced cup user you'll even know better, out of the results,
what to pick or just use our charts.
We have so many resources and we have our group.
That's it! Thank you so much for watching, YouTube.
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* music * What?
* laughing *
Nightmare. Nightmare.
F*ck me.
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* groaning *
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