There is a better way
Every woman knows what it’s like to deal with their monthly visitor, and it’s never simple. There’s planning, purchasing, and preparation involved to ensure a mess-free few days when the Red River really gets to flowing. It can seriously impede your life at times. That’s the problem that Jen Noonan had always experienced. She said about her period habits, “I was almost exclusively a pad user from the time I began my period at age 12. I tried tampons on a few occasions but was never able to get the hang of them; people say you don’t feel them, but I did. Pads weren’t always practical—like when I was playing sports, wearing tight pants, or, say, didn’t want a puddle of blood in my underwear—but I accepted the status quo.”
Though she struggled with her options for 26 years, she broke and went about looking for something else.Here’s what she found…
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A New Way
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She explained, “Then, about three years ago, when I was 38, I decided there had to be a better option. I started searching around online, and I learned about reusable menstrual cups like the Diva Cup. I was intrigued, but I wasn’t so keen on the reusable aspect.”
She kept looking, believing that there was a perfect device out there for her. She continued, “Then I came across Softcup, which was disposable and more like a disc than a cup: Softcup is circular and has no stem—which means you can actually have s*x while it’s in.”
She decided to see if the hype was real about these weird, magical devices that promised the impossible. Jen discussed her initial experience with the Softcup, “The first time I used Softcup it was very weird. I had never used any kind of internal birth control like a diaphragm or NuvaRing, so the inserting—which involves squeezing the disc and pushing it as far up the vaginal canal as you can reach—was unfamiliar. After a few tries, though, it worked! I didn’t feel it at all, and soon I was an old pro. Right away I noticed that it was easier to go about my day. The disc lasts up to 12 hours, so I only had to change it twice a day.”
Success
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It worked out well, but then it came time to test it out during intercourse. Jen and her husband were never afraid of getting it on while she was surfing the crimson wave, but she didn’t like the heavy clean-up that it usually involved. So, she popped a Softcup in and went about her business with her fellow. He didn’t even feel it in there, and there was no leakage. “He’s mentioned that, with deeper s*x, he can sometimes feel it a little, but it’s generally an out of sight, out of mind situation. And as long as I insert a new one just prior to s*x, there’s no mess at all,” she said.
It all seemed so dreamlike for Jen and her happy husband, until she was having trouble getting more. She explained, “Then, around nine months ago, Softcup started becoming difficult to find. I was heartbroken! But a little research told me that Flex—a young company that had recently launched a menstrual disc subscription service—had bought the Softcup brand.”
Finding Flex
Source: Reusable Menstrual Cups
Flex can be purchased online. It does have newer materials, but Jen said that she could hardly notice a difference. She said, “I loved Flex from day one. Having used Softcup, I was very familiar with how it worked. But that’s hardly required: When I was first investigating menstrual cups and discs, I was able to find a lot of information, reviews, and YouTube instructionals. Knowing what I do now, I can’t believe I stuck with pads and tinkered with tampons for so long.”
Jen’s final words of wisdom about menstrual cups were, “With the discs there’s no vaginal dryness, no bulky pads, no strings, no worry of TSS, and you can actually have non-messy s*x. Switching to Flex even helped with my cramps, which used to be terrible, though I have no idea why. (The manufacturer says that the flexible material moves with uterine contractions, which helps ease cramps.) I’ll never wear a tampon or pad again.”
Are you going to give these cups a try, or are you already a huge fan? Let us know in the comments and SHARE this story!
Original by Emily Hingle
