1) you must be comfortable touching yourself
2) you must be comfortable getting a bit messy
3) have a sink nearby
4) relax!
If you are dry it can be a bit of a pain to get situated. There are a few ways to fold the cup to get it in and have it pop open but not all will work every time. I have had to insert and reinsert this a few times because the cup wouldn't open.
I will push my vaginal walls out with my fingers in hopes to open space up enough for the cup to pop open - this works about 50% of the time.
I will spin the cup to make sure nothing is pinched in still - this will cause leakage, and spinning helps prevent a vacuum seal which will make removal difficult.
I insert and remove at home - where I have a squatty potty. This, I have found, helps everything immensely! I have tired to insert in the tub while squatting, sitting on a regular toilet in a public bathroom, and while standing with a foot up. Using the squatty potty is the easiest, followed by the tub.
Public bathroom is the worst due to fear of germs, dropping it, getting to a sink etc. This should not discourage anyone tho! I have had years and years of practice with tampons and have been using this for not even a year! Learning curve is there, but once you know how to get it in and get that down it just becomes practice.
Tips: you should NOT leak, if you are leaking it is not in right or you have the wrong size in. I am 32 with no children and use Cup 1 - I have purchased cup 2 to see what the difference should be. There are also different brands - if Diva doesn't work another style may help based on the depth of your cervix.
These cups wont be too big - the vagina is like an umbrella and will open to accommodate the 'girth'. You should not feel this at all (unless you kegel). Tampons you can sometimes feel - they are long, or are poking something in an odd angle, and they dry you out - this, you should not feel at all as the vagina itself has no nerve endings. However, if you are uncomfortable the stem could be to long, you could have a shallow cervix, or it is in at an odd angle and poking at the wrong angle. If so, take it out and re-insert.
You must fold this to insert it!
Tip 2: Before you insert clean yourself up, insert it, and clean yourself up again. This will help you figure out if you are leaking truely or it is just blood caught around the cup after insertion.
Tip 3: know your flow! I have overflowed this cup once - I noticed leaking and removed the cup; it was full!
If you have mucousy flow it will 'fall out' as you remove the cup. Be prepared!
Sanitize in boiling water after your cycle. This should last you YEARS!
COMPARISON:
I purchased DivaCup Size 1 as my first menstrual cup. My cat has a rubber and now silicone fetish and proceeded to run off with it after I rinsed and put it on the sink before insertion.
Figured I would buy some of the 'generic' or less expensive options, try them out and compare since DivaCup is on the pricer side.
DivaCup $28 ish
Anigan EvaCup 2/$35 dual pack
Athena $20
Blossom $18
I chose the LARGE or Size 2 for each cup except my original Diva
To start all cups are the same in height - about 2.5" high - you can see in the image with the yard stick
I used each cup for a few days of my cycle, both light and heavier/mucusy flow. All worked perfectly, there were zero leaks
DivaCup Size 1 is for prebirth/under 30. Size 2 is postbirth/over 30. The difference is the overall width through the entire cup, the difference is slight.
DivaCup is by far my favorite except that the stem is open - that collects blood/fluid and it is difficult to clean. The wider stem does help it with removal but not all the time. It also only comes in clear, it will eventually discolor since blood stains.
DivaCup has a moderate firmness and a thin edge. It is easy to fold and insert and opening is not an issue most of the time (suction is to blame the times it is difficult)
Blossom Cup is my second favorite. It is visually similar to Diva, comes in funky colors which is a bonus for the staining. I got Red which is really a salmon color, should have chosen lime green. It has a thin edge just like Diva and is moderate in firmness. Easy to fold and insert, opening is not an issue. The body is slightly softer than Diva which may make removal difficult. I tend to grab the base just above the stem to remove.
My least favorites are a tie between EvaCup and Athena Cup for different reasons.
Athena Cup is SOFT - very flimsy, the edge and body squeeze too easily and they just feel inadequate. The softness of the cup makes it hard to have the edges pop open inside you. These cups were the ones I had the most difficulty with.
I just could not get these to open without a lot of internal manipulation (pushing the vaginal walls out to give the cup room to expand). I also had a tough time removing the cups - because they are so soft when you grab the body of the cup it squishes, I couldn't get a good grip. They do come in funky colors and I love the black and teal.
EvaCup has the exact opposite problem, they are FIRM. The edge of Eva is thicker than Diva and the rest, not in width but in length down the cup. This edge is very firm, much firmer than the body which is firmer than Diva by far. This makes folding the cup much more difficult and insertion harder. It does help with popping the cup open but I found if I didn't have a really good firm grip on the cup it opened before I had it high enough. I could feel the cup and had to remove and reinsert a few times before it was high enough and in the right spot to do its job. Eva also comes in some funky colors - the two that came in the dual pack were pink and purple.
OVERALL:
Any of these will work, the best is to pick one and figure out what you like/dislike. Too firm, not firm enough, hard to remove?
Firmer go with Eva, softer go with Athena, somewhere in the middle Diva or Blossom
Colors - go with anything but Diva
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