Today we're going to be talking about menstrual cups, but we're going to be talking about
the things that people don't really talk about when they're talking about menstrual cups.
So the first thing is what I like to call the vaginal bitch slap. In order to get this
cup into your vagina, and have it pop open once it's in there, you have to kind of fold
it up to make it more compact so it can actually
get in there. Sometimes it will pop open before
you've actually got it all the way up inside the vagina. You'll be halfway into the vagina
like that, you'll accidentally let go and that will 'pew!' slap
the front of your vagina. Not the most pleasant thing to experience, it's
not going to cause you
any lasting damage, just a bit of momentary shock and some slight pain.
If you've got a particularly sensitive vagina thats one you know you might have to look
out for and just be extra careful when you're inserting it.
If you're grip is dodgy and you're at risk of slapping yourself in the va-jay-jay,
you could also be at risk of dropping the whole cup into the toilet.
In a year and a half of actually using the cup I have never once done this, except for yesterday.
Now as gross as that may sound, it's not actually a problem. You just have to clean your cup
as you normally would at the end of your cycle.
So be prepared you might drop it in the toilet, hopefully it will be your toilet at home like me.
But I have read some stories of people dropping them in public toilets. Which again, fine
just clean it, but....[gross!].
Here's the thing, if your cup is inserted properly, you shouldn't be able to see any
part of the cup external to the vagina.
So you shouldn't be able to see the bottom bit here, you shouldn't be able to see the little stick.
So I cut the stick off mine but it had like a little stick that came out here that just
made it easier to grab hold of,
but for me that little bit kind of stuck out of my vagina and made me quite uncomfortable,
there was quite a lot of chafing.
So when you want to get the cup out, this means you are going to have to stick your fingers in the vagina.
If you are in full flow, if you are in like Niagra Falls, like my insides are coming out
it's going to be more than a little blood. So if you cup has started to overflow and you need
to change it then there will be blood on the outside of the cup.
Or, more likely, if the cup is just getting quite full, even if it's only up to here,
you have to still squeeze it to take to out of the vagina.
As you pull that out it's likely going to be squeezing and some of that blood will
come out and go down your hand
And this can be quite, you know if you've got heavy flow, it's going to be quite significant.
If you are somebody who doesn't like getting blood on your hands
believe you me after a few times of using a cup, and going through that, you won't actually
give a **** anymore about getting a little bit of blood on your hands
because you will be so in love with your cup and the way it can change your periods and
your view on your periods.
Now here's the thing, if your cup is going to be in you for a good 5-7 days, once a month for years
Then it's probably not going to stay looking exactly how it was when you took it out the packet.
You will notice no matter how much scrubbing and cleaning you do it will retain some kind of tint.
I found mine stayed kind of tinted around the top here and it's not dirty its a very clean cup
it's just the silicone sort of becomes a little bit discoloured over time.
If you buy a coloured cup you are probably going to see the staining less than if you were to
buy a white or clear cup.
In the long run it's clean it's just a bit discoloured so it doesn't matter.
I mean it's going to be inside you most of the time, it's not like people are going to
see it and judge you.
Now if you wear sanitary pads or tampons, and by the way I'm not saying that
you shouldn't be using those you should be using a cup. People can use whatever sanitary
items they want ok?
I just particularly happen to like menstrual cups. As great as they are as fantastic,
sometimes can forget they're even in there.
If you're like me you might only get symptoms of your period, so cramps or whatever, for
the first day or so
and then after that you might not really have much symptoms.
If you are wearing a sanitary pad, I mean its pretty hard to forget you're wearing a
sanitary pad
Tampons, again you might forget they're there but when you go the toilet it's quite obvious
when you see string sticking out between your legs that you've got something in there, with this
I quite often forget it's even in there.
Which is quite nice because you're not constantly thinking about it but it does often mean that
I'm about to go to sleep and I suddenly realise 'Oh ****!' I've not changed my cup.
Make sure you change it twice a day, so they recommend every 12 hours at least
to change your cup.
And just don't forget that it's in there!
There are so many horror stories on the internet about people who say their cup got stuck.
One of the jobs of the cup is to create a suction and that suction means that all the
menstrual fluid will be
going into the cup and not leaking out your body. Now on some occasions what you might find is
I find this quite often when I've woken up in the morning and I go to change my cup sort
of first thing
is that it will have migrated up slightly during the night. When I first started using
this, it was probably the first actual period
I used this for, that happened to me. You know, I tried squatting, I tried bearing down,
and it wouldn't come out.
The best advice I could offer for if this happens to you is just to wait half an hour.
Go and have your breakfast, go watch TV, go read a magazine, go do whatever.
After half an hour go again and more than likely the cup will have dropped back down
and you'll easily be able to get it out.
The more you panic, the more your vaginal muscles will tense and the less it's going
to want to actually give up the cup to you.
Now this is something I really don't see people talking about, and it's the fact that when
you have a cup in,
sometimes it can make you need to pee.
So cups come in different sizes depending on whether you have given birth or whether
you haven't, and just different sizes of cup.
They come in different ......
They come with different firmnesses. But what can sometimes happen if your cup is too big for you
or it's slightly too firm for your body, because of the way the female reproductive system
is situated within the body with regards
to your urinary system and your bowels, the cup can actually press either on the bladder
or on the urethra.
Bladder it will make you feel like you need to pee, urethra it might impede urination
so you might not be able to pee at full flow.
So if you're experiencing that with your cup then I'd suggest trying either a smaller cup
or one that has a lower firmness to it.
Related to that one is, to put it nicely, the back end.
So again, because of where the vagina is situated, if you have a cup that's too big for your
or too firm
what you can sometimes find is that you have a problem emptying your bowels.
This may be particularly evident if you have dietary issues that cause your poo to be quite firm.
So if you're trying to go the toilet to empty your bowels and you have a cup in
what can often happen is as the faeces passes through the bowels it can actually knock the
cup and knock it out of position.
If it gets knocked out of position, you'll then start to leak.
It comes down to experience and personal preference, and your dietary and bowel habits whether
you feel its
necessary to take the cup out when you go to the toilet or not.
The first few times you use your cup it will take a little bit of getting used to
the actual method of inserting it and removing it. Thing is, once you've got that figured
out it is fantastic, it's great, but
that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work for you 100% of the time.
Sometimes you might choose not to use a cup just because its can be quite uncomfortable,
other times might, as much as you want to use it, it might just not co-operate with you.
I was trying to use this this morning and as much as I tried, I think I tried 5 or 6 times,
I could not get the bloody thing to open. I could get it in fine, but then it just would
not pop open
and it got to the point where my hand was actually hurting so I have to give up.
So do be prepared for that eventuality. If you choose menstrual cups as your main form
of menstrual product
then I would say still carry a back up so whether that be a tampon or sanitary towel.
99% of the time this guy will be just be your best friend throughout your period.
And the last one is, being you know a human biologist or whatever you want to call me,
is one I find particularly interesting,
but it might not float everyones boat. Because the little cup actually collects the fluid
and doesn't absorb anything
it's really good for actually seeing how much menstrual fluid you get during your cycle.
So most cups come with little markings on the side. You can see how much you get on your heavy days
how much you get on your light days, and it might not change how you do anything during
that period
but it's just really interesting to see.
(Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom...menstrual fluid).
If you'd like to see more videos about vaginas, and menstrual cups, and reproductive health,
and all that jazz, please remember to like this video and subscribe to my channel.