I want to be as real as possible in this review. The Diva Cup is an excellent concept but it is definitely not for everyone. I have always wanted to try it, firstly because it will alleviate my pocket, and it’s eco-friendly; less waste.
Now, this is my experience. I only watched 5 minutes of a review because even though the directions tell you how to insert the cup I needed something more visual to do it correctly. I did the model one, which is directed to women under 30 who have never had a baby.
The first thing you need to be aware of is that you have to be comfortable with your lady parts and your fluids. If you are icky about your fluids, this is definitely not for you. To begin with, it was very unpleasant to get in. I am not a very “wet” person, which is common among some women. It does not really matter how much water you drink, some of us need stimulus to get wet and certainly inserting this silicone cup is not a very stimulating experience. The directions say that if you are like me, you should use lubricant on the cup but frankly, none of us are going to be carrying lubricant around. Nonetheless, it is not painful; it is just uncomfortable to get in.
Once you get it in, which they indicate to do so at an angle towards your tailbone and fold it in a variety of forms (the most comfortable one for me is the figure 2 fold), you have to twist it and make sure it “pops” open. Don’t be scared though, it does not “pop” inside you; it does open but you don’t feel that so what I did to make sure it had opened was to insert my fingers inside my coochie and touch around the cup to make sure that it was open. This part was not messy but I know that it could be uncomfortable for some.
The good news is that once you get through all that you literally feel NOTHING. The first time you are aware that is there so you can definitely feel slightly something but it is so slight, that after a few
minutes you forget you have it on. It really feels like you have no period, if it was not for the cramps I would not even remember I was on my period because you don’t even feel the flow of the blood. The first day I was kind of paranoid so I put a liner on but no leaks went through. It only leaked when I inserted it quickly and thought it was inserted correctly. Always double check, don’t be like me.
Time to get it out. This part is a little more uncomfortable than inserting it. This is because you have to “push” it down by contracting your abdominal area and stick your finger in to hold the end of the diva cup. The trick is to push to grab the end and then relax your vaginal muscles so that you can pull it out with your fingers. This part was the one that I least liked because it is tight and the muscles are tight too so it was kind of painful to get out even though I was lubricated. Especially when it reached the end of my vagina it popped open and that hurt a lot. I cannot imagine someone who is not as comfortable as I am; it would be very weird for them and could even be scary and hurtful. As the diva cup went out it got very messy, so I made sure to do this always on top of a toilet. If you are not comfortable with blood this Diva Cup situation is not the“cleanest” thing to do. After getting it out you clean it with warm water and a non-fragrance non-thing-that-could-hurt-your-vagina-thing and back it goes.
(do not throw away in the sink, it is very unsanitary, this picture was not taken by me)
My big debate is, I love it when its already in because I feel like I could do anything, literally rule the world while on my period but I dislike the insertion and pulling out situation, plus I felt really uncomfortable to do it anywhere else than my bathroom. It does say that you can be with it for 8 hours and even more but I felt kind of dirty doing that.
Bottom line. If you are properly moist down there, don’t mind the slight pain in your vagina when taking the diva cup out, don’t mind blood, and can wait until you get home, then this is something you will definitely enjoy. It really works perfectly when its inside because you don’t feel like you are in your period. And you would think you bleed a river of blood
but that is not true unless you have some chronic something, because in reality what you think is “a lot of blood” it’s just blood spaced out in your pad, unless you wear a pad for 2 hours and you are leaking by the sides than you should be good with the diva cup. You will save money and save the environment if you use the diva cup. I would next time try model 0 as I felt model 1 was a bit uncomfortable. I will definitely give it a second chance but for now, I will stick to my pads until I’m emotionally capable of using the diva cup.