To wonder why mooncups aren't promoted more as affordable sanitary protection?

[malificent7]

Mine cost £1 from ebay. It was from China so a bit of a wait.

As it is reusable, it would be good for girls from poorer families.

In fact , why arent they promoted in general??

I guess there are a few drawbacks...can be a bit messy . I would never wash them in a public loo sink but they dont need to be washed everytime they are emptied.

Tmi sorry.

nevereverafter thank you :) I am going to order one and have a go next month!

StickThatInYourPipe. Good luck. It does take a while to get used to but well worth it if suits.

what would be your reaction if your 12 yo dd’s best mate washed her mooncup out in your sink?

The same as when she would use it for washing her hands?

I think some people on this thread are revealing their medieval attitudes to menstruation.

I had a Mooncup and it leaked a lot, so I tried a Lunette and stuck with it. It still leaks on heavy days but much less than the Mooncup.
I have seen some ads for menstrual cups in magazines and online, mostly in the Earth Mother/vegan mags I read. Definitely not in Cosmopolitan or on tv! I presume their advertising budget is too small.

I am always surprised when people say menstrual cups are expensive - they save you ££££ over a decade of use.

It's a shame that no one has invented a biodegradable cup yet. The cups that are currently produced will all end up in landfill sites, just like all other sanitary products.

I don't think that a biodegradable version would work too well. Imagine opening your draw when you are due to have a period, try to pick it up and it disintegrates, like the degradable shopping bags. Or it might need liquid to make it degrade, which is no good if it's in a damp place inside of you.

Recyclable would be a better idea.

I never heard of them until mumsnet and probably not for me but the what would you do if your 12 year old dds friend washed one in your sink made me laugh!!

Er so what it’s blood. Trust me had teenagers puking in my sink and that needs a proper clean.

Some people still have 1950s attitudes to periods. Pathetic.

Ive had a mooncup for a few years. I use it sometimes but keep coming back to pads.

I can't seem to get it to feel comfortable. My choice of birth control (when I needed it) was a diaphragm so it's not like I'm squeamish or not used to inserting things.
No matter how well I try to insert it I can always feel it and it tends to 'slip' while I'm wearing it. I have the larger size too and the end 'pull' is virtually completely cut away to help feel more comfortable. I must have a bucket fanny!

The was this summer on holiday. I wore it on the second day of my period to go swimming. Very heavy flow. After just 1 hour I saw drips of blood pouring down my leg. I went to investigate and the cup was overflowing. I emptied and tried again but it never was comfortable or seemed to work. It leaked.

I've never trusted it since so wear pads with it, which isn't the point really. I don't know where I'm going wrong.

Trampire, have you tried a Meluna? They do lots of different sizes and softnesses. You may be able to get a better fit than with a Mooncup.

I've had one for years,no longer needed now.
I couldn't use them for the first couple of days if my periods(too heavy) but used them for the rest especially good for those light days when a tampon is too much and pads uncomfortable,especially in summer.
As for the blood in the sink why would this be any different from a nose bleed just because it comes from a different introduce,fresh blood is clean.We brush our teeth at sinks and I think you might be horrified at what is growing there.

Anymajor, thanks. No not heard of Meluna. I will have a look.

I'd never heard of cups before Mumsnet but I wouldn't go back.
I have a Divacup and it's almost like having no period at all.
Due to my job changing tampons isn't always easy and I find pads to messy.
Can't believe some posters are so squeamish about their own bodily functions.

I tried to use one but didn’t get on with it. The idea is great, but not every woman can use tampons so def not everyone can use a mooncup. Also th idea of washable pads. Grim, but no way (and I used reusable nappies so am not that squeamish).

Another convert here, I have used my mooncup for 2 years and can’t ever imagine using a tampon again. Ugh that dry tampon feeling!

Just wanted to add that when I had my Mirena fitted I asked about the risk of it being dislodged/sucked out by the mooncup. The dr looked at me like and said that wouldn’t be something to worry about. (I still get periods with Mirena, lucky me!)

The only negative I have is that I can’t seem to take it out without making a suction plunger type noise

A couple of things:

1. I understand why people don't want to be washing out their menstrual cups in sinks in public loos. However, most women will NEVER need to do this. Unless you have an extremely heavy flow, you should be able to change your cup first thing in the morning and last thing at night and that's it. All done in the privacy of your own bathroom.

1. Menstrual cups are excellent for teenagers. You never need to worry about PE or swimming or any of those things.

1. They come in a wide range of different sizes to suit different body shapes and flow. I use a Lunette which works brilliantly for me, but it's quite a small cup and wouldn't be the right one for everyone.

1. They don't get stuck inside. I find them easier to remove than a tampon.

1. They aren't smelly because, unlike tampons and pads, the blood doesn't dry.

1. Not everyone sees an improvement in period pain with a cup, but some people definitely do.

If you're at all interested in trying a menstrual cup, I can't recommend Brie's Youtube videos highly enough:

I've been using one for two years and it has honestly changed my life. More convenient, more protection, cheaper, easier, never have to remember to stock up. I wish I'd known about them twenty or thirty years ago, to be honest. I tell all the teenage girls I know about them.

"They don't get stuck inside"

Took me 10 minutes to get one out once. I was panicking and it was horrible.

Because it would take profits away from the big companies. And maybe they're not that hygienic. I wouldn't use one from China either. But I suppose from the environmental viewpoint they're a good idea.

We had Mooncup in our Christmas crackers. 😂🤣

I was 13 in 1990 so probably just a bit older than you. We were given sanitary towels only and pre-teen girls weren't encouraged to use tampons then

I was 13 in 1985 and had learned all about tampons and how to use them at sex ed class. I hated disposable sanitary pads which was all my mum would give me, and bought and used my own tampons from my first period onwards. Hated applicator tampons though, they are too long for me.

I got my moon cup after having DD at 39. I still couldnt bear any disposable pads after the birth and used folded up cloth, then got washables. I got the moon cup when my periods came back 5 months after the birth.

I really wish I had discovered washable pads and mooncups decades ago, they are fab. Just the thought of disposable sanitary products makes me itch, they are far, far more grim than reusables IME.

Or drive innovation in these big companies, Vivienne.

Sorry if I have missed this, but how do you know it is full and needs to be emptied
Most days I only need to empty it morning and evening. A couple of days I might also need to do it in the middle of the day.
The mooncup has a few tiny holes just below the top of the cup, that will leak very slightly before it overflows so on the odd times it has leaked, it hasn't been disastrous like it was when a tampon leaked.

Another here who thinks that wider promotion of menstrual cups as an alternative to pads and tampons would make the lives of many females so much more bearable during their periods. Although my periods have petered out since having a Mirena fitted , i used to get very heavy periods - it may be a coincidence but in the 7 years that I was using a cup (before Mirena) my periods became more regular and much less painful. Still heavy so I used pads and often had to empty every hour in my heaviest day (2) but given that I used to use 2 super plus tampons at a time just to get through days 1-3 it was a massive improvement and money saving dream!

I love my moocup. Admittedly I leave it in for 14.5 hours rather than the recommended 12 but it means I don’t have to worry about Sanpro all day at work.

what would be your reaction if your 12 yo dd’s best mate washed her mooncup out in your sink?

This is the strangest thing I have ever read on MN. Do you police your children’s friends sink activities?

Voice0fReason thank you :) I have ordered one.

I’m so excited haha! I told DP and he just looked at me like ‘why the fuck do I care about this’ MEN! Hahaha

I think a lot of people would hit the roof about a mooncup being rinsed in the sink. There are people on MN who seem to think placing a tampon in a friend's bathroom bin is on a par with the German occupation of Poland in 1939.

I think I should say here that I use reusable pads, and I rinse them out quickly in the bathroom sink before they go in the washing machine. I thus know, from first hand experience, exactly how hard it is to rinse blood out of anything without getting drips of red tinged fluid all over the bathroom basin. Based on

1. my experience of flatsharing with 18-year-olds, and,
2. every thread on MN about children not tidying their room, I think it's very unlikely that the average 12 year-old will be able to rinse a mooncup out without leaving any evidence!