But that cup might wind up being really uncomfortable to wear. Instead of looking at the volume a cup can hold, you should try to pick based on which cup will fit you most comfortably. If you suspect you might have a particularly long or short vagina, you can ask your OB-GYN next time you go in. When you get a pap smear, the speculum they use can come in a few different sizes.
Most people simply get the standard middle-size speculum, but some might need the large or small versions. Ask your gynecologist which size they use on you. These are all just general guides, and remember that vaginas are inherently stretchy they are designed to fit a baby through them, after all. Aside from size, there is one other main distinction between different cups: firmness.
Some cups are made of sturdier silicone than others. For other people, the thicker, sturdier cups are uncomfortable to insert and wear.
This, too, is a matter of personal comfort and preference that requires some trial and error to figure out.
Like tampons , menstrual cups should be easy to insert and remove and reliably keep the blood in instead of all over your clothing. They should also be easy to clean and store, and last for years without getting smelly or breaking down. In reality, cups hold menstrual fluid, which is made up of blood, vaginal secretions, cervical mucus, and tissue from the endometrium. We found that black cups made it hard to see any residue that still needed cleaning, especially inside the cup itself. Most menstrual cups are designed to have a long skinny stem.
But some models, including our MeLuna pick, come with other options. The argument for ball and loop stems is that they can make the cups easier to remove: They give you something bigger to grab onto, or you can even slip a finger into the loop to pull the cup out. In fact, trying to remove a cup by hooking your finger into the loop and pulling is a recipe for spillage.
The same goes for pulling on the ball. When we tried removing cups that way, we wound up spilling a lot of blood all over the place. Most people remove their cups by inserting two fingers and gently squeezing the cup, and then sliding it out. More on how to insert and remove cups later. Ball and loop designs are slightly bigger too, and some people find that they can irritate the vaginal canal more than a stem might. Most cups come with relatively long stems that many people will trim down.
Almost all menstrual cups are made out of medical-grade silicone—a material found in everything from feeding tubes to catheters. Some cups are made of thermoplastic elastomer a type of plastic that is a bit cheaper to manufacture than silicone , and there is one cup made out of rubber, the Keeper Cup. You might have at some point encountered menstrual discs as well.
Menstrual discs have one key thing in common with menstrual cups: They catch menses. For a long time, menstrual discs were available only in disposable forms, but now there are a few that are reusable, so we gave them a try.
For more on those, see What about menstrual discs? In the end, we put all our cups and reusable discs to the same set of tests, and then separated our picks into vague vagina shapes. A note on price: You can go on Amazon and find menstrual cups that are really cheap, but menstrual cup reviewer Bolen says to steer clear.
Remember, when you think about it as a replacement for all the pads and tampons you buy, it will pay itself off in as few as three cycles. Overall we tested 29 cups from 18 manufacturers. First, we tested how easy it was to fold each cup for insertion. There are a bunch of folding methods you can use to insert your cup , and we encourage you to try them all until you find the one that works best for you and your cup.
We tried to fold every cup into five different folds. Some cups were easy to fold into all the various shapes, others were a little more tricky.
The FemmyCycle cups, which have a much more rounded, bulbous shape, were harder to fold up. And many cups come with either little volume labels or logos etched into them, all of which can accumulate blood in their nooks and crannies. The MeLuna got points in this test for coming with a little cleaning brush, but all the cups we tested were easy to clean. We then tested how easy each cup was to insert and remove. To evaluate this as objectively as possible, we had to figure out a way to simulate a vagina.
Simulating that, it turns out, is actually pretty difficult, and I will now take a small detour to tell you how difficult it is. My first stop was Home Depot, where I bought a variety of silicone tubes.
But they were all either too narrow or too rigid to really work as a vagina. Then I looked to sex toys, because there are plenty of masturbatory aids that purport to simulate real vaginas. But many of them had the same problem that the commercial versions did: It was impossible to see what was going on inside the various tubes. The way most of these videos and online guides describe this setup, I have to say, seems extremely untenable for masturbation.
And in my case, gluing plastic to plastic is actually a lot harder than you might imagine. Even with special plastic epoxies, the Bubble Wrap was constantly coming undone from the water bottle after a few insertions and removals.
So that method was out. Then I tried a DIY masturbator that involved either one bag of water, or several bags of water tied together.
This did simulate the stretchiness of the vagina pretty well, but the water moved around enough inside the bags that I could never actually get the cups in and out without incident. Several times my homemade vagina exploded water all over my kitchen. After the third or fourth water bomb went off, I decided to change tactics.
There are some videos online that use a champagne flute type of glass to simulate the vagina, so I went to the local thrift store to buy a whole bunch of different flute-shaped glasses. It turns out finding one that is the right width and shape is very hard. None of the glasses I bought worked.
Eventually, I was desperate enough that I wandered around Target with a couple of menstrual cups in my pocket, trying to subtly fit them into things. Then I came across my ultimate solution. In the end, it was the travel-size toiletries section that came to my rescue.
There, I found some reusable silicone tubes that I cut the bottom off of and turned into my make-shift vaginas. These were stretchy enough to simulate a vagina, returned to their original shape, were soft and easy to work with, and could fit all the cups I had to test. This is all to say that the vagina is an incredible thing that is very hard to replicate.
I used a little bit of water-based lubricant to get the cups in and out of the travel-size-container vaginas, and once they were inserted put a bit of colored water into each cup to see how easy it was to remove them without a spill. This test confirmed that cups we had trouble folding in the earlier test like the FemmyCycle and the Intimina collapsible were indeed hard to insert and remove in this test.
Some of the cups have a smoother silicone than others, and we found that the cups with the very plasticky silicone, like the Luna and Yuuki cups, required more lube going in and out of the tube. I spilled the most trying to remove the Luna cup, as it would catch on the silicone and I had to yank a bit more to get it out. But most cups were easy to insert and remove, opened up without much trouble, and performed well overall. Which makes our job a lot harder here.
Most cups are really, really similar in fact, some cups seem to be made at the exact same facilities using the same molds. And the shape of the cup, rather than being the bell-shaped curve, has more of a kidney-bean-shaped bottom with grippy rings that are really easy to hold onto.
We found that this design makes removal easier, since the cup is shaped to be pinched. The Cora cup is made of the same soft silicone so many cups are and is easy to clean. It holds slightly less volume than some of our other picks, so if you know you have a heavy flow you might find yourself emptying it more than some of the other options.
We really like MeLuna cups in general, because they are so customizable. Unlike most cups, which come in only two sizes, MeLuna cups come in a whole bunch of sizes and styles. We tested a handful of combinations of firmnesses, handles, and sizes, and they were all easy to insert and remove because we could fold them in all sorts of ways thanks to them hitting a sweet spot of firmness and thickness. They were also easy to clean. The MeLuna Classic falls into the middle of the size range we tested.
Unlike most menstrual cups, which are made of medical-grade silicone, the MeLuna is made of medical-grade thermoplastic elastomer TPE. The material is manufactured in Germany, where it must comply with standards that allow it to be used in products like baby pacifiers. You can get the MeLuna Classic in four sizes , from small to extra-large. The small cup holds between 10 and 28 milliliters, and the extra-large holds between 21 and 42 milliliters.
The MeLuna Classic is also right in the middle of the pack when it comes to firmness. In addition to a cloth carrying pouch, MeLuna cups come with a small brush that can be helpful for fine-detail cleaning. The MeLuna offers the shortest cup we could find, with an entire Shorty line of cups for those who have very low cervixes. It has all the same attributes we like about the MeLuna Classic. The caveat here is that if you also have a narrow vagina, the DivaCup might be uncomfortable to wear because it is relatively wide.
If you have a long but narrow vagina, go with the MeLuna. In the United States, the DivaCup is a best seller.
But the DivaCup is actually one of the largest, longest cups you can buy the MeLuna Classic Medium is 48 millimeters long, and the DivaCup is 66 millimeters long. The Lena cup is a good choice here. The silicone on the Lena is really nice and smooth, but no less firm than the MeLuna or DivaCup, and of the wide cups we tested it was the easiest one to handle without spillage.
For a long time menstrual discs were available only in disposable form, most commonly as the Softdisc formerly known as the Softcup , made by Flex Company.
Now, however, reusable menstrual discs are available, and we decided to test three of them. Discs do not sit in the vaginal canal the way cups do. To use a disc, you squeeze the rim so that the disc becomes a long, thin shape like a tampon , and you insert it up into the vagina and push it all the way back so that the farthest part of the disc finds its way tucked up behind your cervix.
Then you press the side of the disc closest to you up and tuck it up behind your pubic bone. This tension is what keeps the disc in place. Removing a disc also differs from removing a cup: Rather than pinching the bottom of the disc and pulling out, you insert a finger into your vaginal canal and hook it under the rim of the disc.
As with a menstrual cup, inserting, positioning, and removing a menstrual disc involves a learning curve.
Discs require you to insert your fingers much farther up your vaginal canal than cups do. If you have a low cervix, menstrual discs are probably not the right option for you, as they do require a certain amount of space to fit comfortably. In fact, for most people, we recommend a menstrual cup over a disc.
For Our Future Employee-owned, ethical, multi-award winning: Mooncup is changing the way things get done. Collaborates with projects to improve menstrual health and environmental education across the globe. Tried and trusted since by millions of users around the world, the Mooncup menstrual cup offers an end to the waste, discomfort and expense of disposable sanitary protection.
The Mooncup is made in the UK by an ethical, employee owned company. We are here for you. We offer a unique Advice Service run by medical health professionals who can be contacted with any Mooncup usage queries — here to help you make the switch.
Buy yours today. You may get the knack first time but on average it can take up to 3 periods to get used to it. Find out how to use the Mooncup in 4 easy steps. Size A is 3mm bigger than size B — a small difference but it is important! Choose the right size for you following the simple guidelines. The Mooncup collects up to three times more menstrual blood than a regular tampon. The size A Mooncup can hold It holds three times the fluid of a tampon, making it great on heavier days, too.
First wash your hands. You can then take a small bottle of water into the toilet cubicle with you. Remove the Mooncup, tip the contents into the toilet bowl, rinse with a small amount of water and re-insert. We passionately believe that everyone should have the basic right to menstruate without shame or stigma and are proud to support many charities and not-for-profit programmes in the UK and worldwide.
Are you considering a sustainable swap to the Mooncup? Graduate student Ansley Hayes has a DivaCup at home and uses it in addition to Softdisc, pads, and tampons. She says the DivaCup can sometimes put too much pressure on her cervix, however, if it happens to be sitting lower in her body. Menstrual discs are much more flexible than menstrual cups, and they sit differently inside the body, which is why many women find them more comfortable.
Menstrual discs are also more comfortable for couples having period sex. Sekhon tells us that, for period sex, choosing something without a stem that sticks down, like a Softdisc, is your best bet. The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.
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