#dutchess cup

[wino-witch]

It’s about to be my shark week, which means you guys are gonna hear me rant and rave about menstrual cups some more for the next 4-7 days.

[wino-witch]

Day 3, cupdate #7: first leak!

I'm getting better at keeping these updates short, but I'm still putting them under cuts to spare those who don't care So I just sprung my first leak. My flow must be getting heavier mid-period (like usual) because the cup was in fine, it just overflowed. It's been almost exactly 5 hours since I put the empty cup in this morning after successfully using it overnight. I saw a demonstration once that showed that most m-cups hold like 3-5x as much as a tampon, which means I would have burned through that many tampons by now, jayzuss #heavyflowyo. Also, cup leaks seem to spring as soon as they need to and just a little comes out to warn ya, tampon leaks are always Niagara Falls for me, there's no warning, so I'm okay with this. I've been intentionally wearing ugly already period stained underwear I keep around specifically for this time of month and cheap Dollar Tree panty liners (40pack for a buck, yo) while I get the hang of this. The leak was minor, but I'm glad I checked because I assumed I what I had felt was was air bubbles, a feeling I've gotten used to over the past couple of days of using this thing. Let's see how long before I have to empty it again.

[wino-witch]

Day 3, menstrual cupdate #6

I slept with it in and didn't die. Or leak. It didn't travel much in my sleep like I feared, but it WAS harder to get out after sleeping with it in than it has been since I've finally got it down during the daytime these last couple days. I don't know what I did, but it hurt when it popped open this morning after I dumped it and reinserted. And now I have a new concern because anxiety: air. When you break the seal and the air pushes out, is that dangerous? Like, I'm sure most of you have heard those stories about girls getting air blown into their junk by dumb boys and they die, but I assume that takes a lot more air and force than a little cup can produce Or so my hypochondriac tendencies hope ANYWAY Here's update 6 of a billion

[wino-witch]

Day 2, Cupdate #5?

Lots of progress made! I’m bad at keeping these updates short, though. Sahree. Today I forced myself to trust the cup and not change it every time I went to the bathroom. I put it in around 10am and just changed it at 6:30pm. EIGHT HOURS UNINTERRUPTED HOLY FUHK. I’d normally be on at leeeast tampon #4 and have leaked at least twice, which is crazy because it doesn’t look like I produced anywhere near enough blood forth that. Maybe I’m still a bit normal in flow since today’s day 2 and yesterday was mostly spotting, I don’t know! I was up to exactly the 15ml mark, and seeing that much blood in a cup that was in your vag is SO COOL. I learned something that should have been common sense - the fuller the cup, the easier the removal. Seriously, I made less of a mess with a full cup than a non-full cup. Like I said, it should be common sense - because most of the air has already escaped the cup as it filled up with blood, the suction lessens. Breaking the seal was super easy today.

Also, I’m thoroughly impressed I didn’t leak because I thought I didn’t really feel the cup pop out inside me earlier and I was very active today. I swam (and by swam I mean rough housed and jumped around and did all kinds of crazy things in water, including jumping on and straddling a giant penguin float several times because why not) with my little brother for a while this afternoon, and I was worried that all that movement would either make me leak or make the cup move too far up/down, but neither of these things happened. BADASS.

Warning: descriptive talk of period blood below The cool but also icky thing about cups is you get to see the exact consistency and quantity of blood you’re producing. You get to see how it’s almost like two fluids that have an almost oil/water effect between gel and liquid. Like, you can sort of tell with pads abd tampons but not really because of how much is absorbed. You KNOW it’s not just blood but it’s fascinating to see the difference in fluids and texture that make up the solution that we shrink down to the the word “blood”. I think I’m gonna be brave and test sleeping with it in tonight. I’ve heard that’s when they most commonly migrate up higher though and that wigs me out, but there’s only one way to know D: I’ve learned my cup is one of the shorter ones made by any brand (by a seemingly small amount but it apparently makes a huge difference inside you!) so if/when the day comes I buy another, I’ll probably buy one that’s known for their length, like the common Diva. I’d suggest the Dutchess for those with average to low cervixes (cervices?) though. Its not tiny and there’s nothing wrong with it, I’ll just personally feel safer having extra length and a longer stem, I think.