Some advice from people who have used menstrual cups?

I have been peeking at several menstrual cups online such as the diva cup, moon cup, the keeper etc and was wondering which one would be available where I live. I'd rather not buy one online. So if anyone in Canada found one, say, at the drugstore or something, could you let me know?


Also, I don't know how well this will work out at school. I am sick and tired of tampons and pads you have to replace every few hours, but I don't know if a menstrual cup will get messy. Also, my mom is very health conscious with feminine products and everything. She was a little concerned when I wanted to start using the OB tampons out there. Help?


Lastly, I wanted to know if you have to still wear pads at night, or if you can still use the cup at night. Will that get messy?





Thanks!Some advice from people who have used menstrual cups?
Divacup will be the easiest to find because they are Canadian based, they have a store locator on their web site http://www.divacup.com/en/search you may also want to look into small health stores as they often sell them.








Cups will work out fine at school, I would have loved to have known about menstrual cups when I was in school as it would have saved me a lot of embarrissment and missed days due to my heavy flow, menstrual cups aren't messy at all, they can be worn for up to 12 hours at any time and with any flow so you should easily be able to wear the cup through your whole school day, even if you were to be so heavy as to need to empty it in the bathrooms the blood stays in the cup until you dump it out, and all you need to do is empty and clean off with toilet paper, wipes or take a bottle of water in with you to clean it. Cups don't leak, because they hold more fluid than tampons and pads and create a seal, if they get full then you can feel that they are full, you will start to get pink discharge as the blood starts to fill up the cup and leak through the small suction holes, if you continue to ignore that you need to empty the cup then it will start leaking after an hour or so, but the leaking is nothing like the full-blown flood you get if you leak when wearing tampons! You can always just wear a liner if you're concerned. To put this into perspective my flow is ten times heavier than normal women's, in school I used super-plus tampons and pads but I'd leak through both and my clothing within 15 minutes...where as with a menstrual cup I've used them for 7 years and only leaked about 5 times, and that was when I was being lazy and not emptying when I should have been, if cups can handle my heavy period without leaking or making a mess, then they can handle anyone's period!





Your mom will be fine as long as she is open minded enough to look at information on menstrual cups, the thing is tampons are a real health risk ebcause they prevent vaginal cleaning, encourage bacterial growth, absorb vaginal fluids and commercial brands contain harmful ingredients, the younger you are the more at-risk you are. Tampons have been linked to TSS, cancer and endometriosis, they are a major cause of vaginal infections, can increase menstrual flow and menstrual cramps, and chemicals can have more general long-term health risks - tampon companies are self-regulated and there are no independent safety checks carried out on tampons. Menstrual cups have no health risks what-so-ever because they don't absorb, they don't interfere with vaginal functions, and they don't contain harmful ingredients, they have never been associated with TSS or other tampon-related health problems (thus why they can be worn so long, during any flow and even before your period starts), many women do report their periods are lighter and cramps reduced when switching from tampons to cups. Again to go on personal experience, when using tampons and pads I had constant vaginal infections, where as in the 7 years I've been using a cup I've never had a single vaginal infection.





You can use a cup at night, it's not like tampons where you are at risk if you use them at night (because when laying down there is less blood going into the tampon so they absorb more vaginal fluids, leading to more vaginal damage, also tampons have to be changed every few hours), menstrual cups can be left in for up to 12 hours and they don't absorb fluids so are totally safe to use at night, if you have a very heavy period you may want to use a pad too just in case, but normally there's no leaking so it's find just to use your cup.





If you haven't already check out these sites;


http://www.menstrualcups.org - also check out their information on the right-hand side of the page, lots of useful information, you may also find it a good idea to check to see if Divacup is going to be the best option for you, see this post http://community.livejournal.com/menstru鈥?/a>


http://www.scarleteen.com/article/advice鈥?/a>


http://www.lunapads.com/productfaq/divac鈥?/a>


http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~obsidian/cl鈥?/a>


http://www.answers.com/topic/menstrual-c鈥?/a>Some advice from people who have used menstrual cups?
Where are you? How old are you?





I bought a Divacup online about 3 years ago. I have very heavy periods, so I wear a reusable fabric pad with my cup. With a cup, I am more able to monitor how heavy my flow is. I wear it all night, and rarely have leaks. It's also cheaper and better for the environment.





I am in Australia. There are some woman-focussed sex shops which sell cups like the Keeper. You might also have some success buying one from Ebay, if they give you the option of paying by money order or bank deposit rather than credit card.