I just bought a reusable menstrual cup to give to a friend for her birthday, and it occurred to me to check if any ladies here at the TFP had heard of them. I did a search but only found the one thread where I had mentioned them myself.
I've been using a reusable menstrual cup for about two years now. I started with the
Keeper, which is a natural gum rubber kind, and then when I heard about the
Divacup (about a year later), I switched to that to give it a try (there was nothing wrong with my Keeper). Both are great. I can say without hesitation that switching to a cup was a good decision all around. You can read the websites about them for official information, but here's a little summary of why they rock:
1) You can leave them in for up to 12 hours (depending on how heavy your flow is) with no fear of TSS because they aren't full of chemicals the way tampons are.
2) They don't mess with your natural chemistry by sucking up all your moisture the way tampons do because they don't absorb - they just catch.
3) They save you lots of $ money $ because they cost about $35 each (I think the Divacup is slightly cheaper than the Keeper) and are reusable for up to
10 years. I imagine the Keeper might need to be replaced slightly more often than the Divacup because of color/odor changes since it's natural rubber, but the one I've had for two years is still in pretty much the same condition.
4) They're eco-friendly because you never throw anything away. You just flush your blood away and rinse the cup out with soapy water - that doesn't take any longer than washing your hands, and I've never had to clean mine out in a public restroom because it stays in up to 12 hours. Imagine how many pads and tampons you can prevent from going into landfills every month.
5) You don't have to carry stuff around with you the whole time you have your period and you never have to borrow supplies from friends and strangers. Once it's in you, you already have it and you never have to experience the embarrassment of asking your boss' wife for a tampon at that fancy business dinner ever again.
6) You don't even have to take them out and clean them every time you use the bathroom; you only take them one when it's time to empty. They're also very comfortable - I pretty much forget I have mine in during the hours between emptying it.
I can't really emphasize enough how much my life has changed since I started using one. So has anybody here used one before? Any questions?