Lena Menstrual Cup Reusable Period Cup

A little background: I'm a 26 year old woman who has never given birth. I am an advocate for women's health, and I worked in gynecology for several years. Outside of where I live (rural Texas!), I'm probably the second type of woman that pops into your head when you think of someone who uses a menstrual cup -- the first being the crunchy granola hippie who turns her placenta into pills. (I'm not judging, do you.) (Okay I'm judging a little, but that's mostly because of my own prejudices.) I have long loved the idea of reducing waste w/r/t menstrual products. For the last 6 years, I've used OB tampons because the idea of throwing applicators in the trash every month is appalling to me. I'm not a hippie or a tree-huger by any means, but I don't want to create more waste than I need. I also liked how little space the OB tampons took in my purse. Because I was already familiar with my lady parts, trying a cup seemed like the natural progression. Many of my friends use, love, and have recommended menstrual cups. So I said LET'S GET ON BOARD. The first time I tried was in 2013, and it was a disaster. I have a cervix that changes heights throughout my cycle and I have tried the Diva Cup, the Lunette Cup, and the Lily Cup at various points over the last four years with no success. I couldn't get a seal that worked or the cup would not work with my cervix. For one reason or another, I am not even sure what (shape? positioning of holes? my vagina not being a welcoming environment?), they just didn't work for me. I'm not exactly sure what caused me to bite the bullet this time, but I'm so glad that I did. After doing loads of research on menstrual cups (checking out Bryony (aka Bree aka Precious Stars Pads), the Put A Cup In It ladies, and the livejournal community on menstrual cups), I decided that a cup that was more bell/tulip shaped that was rather firm would be my best bet. I received my cup on Saturday morning, realized I'd started my period early in the afternoon, and after a few experimental folds, decided the punch-down fold would work best for me. The first day of my period was great! I left it in for about 11 1/2 hours with no leaks, I peed multiple times, had a BM, could not feel the cup at all. Which I thought was a good thing....until it was time for removal. I had some issues getting the seal to break, and my cervix is much higher than it generally is. I couldn't reach the stem of the cup with my fingers at all. I later figured out that most of the problem was the stem getting caught right above my pubic bone. The following is a (slightly censored) series of text messages I sent to one of my best friends (herself a diva cup user): "Okay so I just spent the last 45 minutes trying to remove my cup" "I literally couldn't get it out. I couldn't break the seal at all" "I ended up pushing like I was pooping but before I got the cup out I got a massive s*** and all of the residual (SUPER POTENT) urine out" "(It was at the top of my vagina which is VERY LONG rn bc my cervix is VERY HIGH today)" "at that point it got down to a place where i could tug on the stem" "and then I couldn't get it at all" "I got the stem outside of my body, relaxed, AND MY EFFING VAGINA ATE IT AGAIN" "So then I cried a little, took some giant breaths, and pushed down a gain. Got to where I could pull on the stem and it was so slippery I couldn't get a grip on it" "I beared (bore?) down while I was pulling on the stem and then the base and it popped out NO effing problem" "aaaand the single movement poured into the toilet before I could see how much blood was in it." Her only response? "Omfg friend, I'm so sorry." So. I took the overnight off my cup and used a tampon. And look, I have been using tampons for the last 15 years, exclusively for the last 13 or so. I have never felt a tampon the way that I did after I used my cup for just a single day. I could feel it. The same type of tampon I'd been using and inserting since I was in college. The menstrual product I had previously touted as perfect and unobtrusive! I COULD FEEL IT. It was one of the weirdest sensations I've experienced in a long time. In the morning, I took out the tampon, and it was mostly dry. It HURT to remove. You know the feeling? I don't need to describe it to you. At that point, I decided that my poor vagina was going to be miserable no matter what I did, so it might as well not be as dry as my West Texas plains. I put some water-based lube on the cup, on account of my vagina being so dry, and inserted it. ...and then it popped open before it was all the way inserted, because it was TOO LUBEY. Think that episode of New Girl when Schmidt uses too much lube and falls off the top bunk of a bunk bed. That is basically what happened, only the cup was schmidt and the bunk bed was the inside of my vagina? This is not a perfect metaphor. Anyway, it didn't hurt but it was uncomfortable as I was removing it. I adjusted the lubrication factor on the cup to a manageable amount, and inserted. Now, I will say this about my experience that I'm guessing most of you won't have: The one thing that's been tricky for me from transitioning from the digital tampons to the cup is the angle of insertion. With the digital tampons (digital as in "use your fingers" not "data expressed by 0s and 1s and transmitted"), you flare out the base and insert in the general upwards but slightly backwards direction. With the cup, you insert generally backwards and slightly upwards. Any issues I have had with inserting the cup have been with getting that angle right. I've found myself standing with one foot on the tub or the toilet, like Captain Morgan, starting to insert up and thinking, "NOPE THIS IS NOT RIGHT, abort abort BEFORE IT POPS OPEN TOO SOO-crap." If you're not used to inserting things into your vagina at a specific angle, this will not apply to you. My flow picked up on Sunday to the point where I filled up roughly half of the small cup (so probably between 8-15mL) each time I've emptied it between Sunday and Tuesday. I would say I have a normal - normal-heavy flow, though my periods last around 8-10 days, though they do get considerably lighter after day 5 and sometimes skip a day or two in the middle. (I have talked to my gyne about this, she says my endometrium is just finicky. She also said I have a cute uterus.) I had an Incident on Tuesday afternoon after work, where, instead of pulling the cup out and slightly up, I got a bit...overzealous in my movement and ended up spilling on myself and the floor. Thankfully, I was about to get into the shower and was not wearing clothes, though I did have to lysol the floor and pray no crime scene investigator comes to the house and luminols the floor any time soon. I chalk this up to my own clumsiness and inexperience, as well as my over-zealousness, rather than a shortfall of the cup. There was just a bit of clear fluid in the cup when I emptied it on Wednesday morning. Figuring I'd hit one of my mid-period lulls, I put the cup in its adorable bag and took it with me to work. I figured that if I needed it, I could insert it at work. Well, after my morning meeting, I Felt It Coming Back. So I went to one of the bathroom stalls, took a few deep breaths, squatted a smidge, and put the cup in. First try: no popping it open and hitting me at the entrance of my vagina, no lube, in a public place! I would generally have to change a super tampon at least once over my workday or a regular tampon 2-3 times. NOTHING. It was just SET IT AND FORGET IT, like those Ron-co cookers that used to have infomercials running constantly in the early 2000s. I have been able to remove and insert it on the first or second try after the first day or so. I will say that there is a steep learning curve to using a cup, but I would say that's not different than switching from pads to tampons for the first time -- an experience I haven't had since middle school. There is a possibility that I could have made another cup work if I tried harder, but I had leaks galore with those cups. This one? NADA. Even on the first day. The customer service at Lena is FANTASTIC. After my Saturday Night Vagina Fight, I used the contact form on the Lena website to ask if maybe I needed the larger size because of my migration issue and inability to remove the cup. I sent it around 10:30p my time and received an in-depth reply from Amanda at 2:04a. ON A SATURDAY GOING INTO SUNDAY. That's literally unheard of. Like, I worked at a bar and stopped giving a care about our drunk patrons after about 1:30a. She was kind, very reassuring, and gave me a lot of suggestions. I took them into account and haven't had an issue with removal since. I would recommend this product to anyone across the board, with the following exceptions: -people who do not have vaginas -people who no longer menstruate due to hormonal birth control, menopause, hysterectomy, or endometrial ablation -people who are not comfortable getting up close and personal with their genitals, including measuring their cervix -people who are not comfortable with the viscous and weirdly textured menstrual blood -people who embarrass easily Menstrual cups in general and the Lena Cup specifically are good for: -individuals who care about their carbon footprint and creating less waste -people who travel a lot and don't want to worry about carrying around menstrual products -people who are forgetful and have to buy a new box of tampons every month because they forget theirs at work -individuals who work long shifts with not a lot of time for restroom breaks (nurses, servers, teachers, etc.) I can't count the number of times I left a tampon in for what I know is too long because I didn't want to lose a table during a shift at the bar. -people who want to be cool-- menstrual cup sales have gone up almost 200% since 2015! If you've read this far into the review, you're clearly interested in this product, and I cannot recommend it enough. I hope you enjoyed it, learned from my mistakes, and laughed with me at myself.