How To Use A Menstrual Cup (written by once sceptical menstrual cup users)
We can’t tell you how many times we get the question, “I bought my cup, now how do I use it?”. Consider this your complete guide to how to use a menstrual cup, written by initially sceptical menstrual cup users.
So, you’ve got your cup (or you’re yet to take the plunge, in which case we’d suggest buying a Flowcup here) and you’re looking at it thinking, how do menstrual cups work? Simply put, you’ve got yourself a bell-shaped sanitary product, designed to collect menstrual fluids, that sits against the vaginal wall (behind the pubic bone) just below your cervix.
Some of you will have never inserted a sanitary product before and others may be all aboard the tampon train thinking, this cup is significantly bigger and doesn’t come with an emergency eject string, what have I got myself into?
Well, one of the biggest menstrual cup benefits is how it reduces your personal waste from 15,000 tampons (or pads) to 4-5 menstrual cups in a lifetime. Yes girl! Call Greta Thunberg, we’re on team mother nature!
Preparing a menstrual cup
Step one when dealing with a menstrual cup is always to take a deep breath. We’d recommend repeating step one as often as needed because the thing about women’s bodies is when we get nervous, stressed or frustrated, they go into muscular lock down, which makes using a cup a little more difficult. So, breathe, be calm and think about all the landfill you’re no longer adding to.
Step two is to boil your cup or submerge your cup in boiling water for 5 minutes. This sterilises the cup and makes sure it’s squeaky clean. After doing this, wash your hands because we are busy, multitasking women and we don’t want any germs touching our perfectly sterile period cup.
How to insert a menstrual cup
You probably know there are a couple of different folds to make the cup smaller for insertion, but which fold is going to be right for you? Well, this is definitely something worth experimenting with when you’re comfortable with your cup, but for beginners, we recommend the push down fold because it has the smallest surface area to start with.
Very simply, push down one side of the cup into the centre of the cup and fold in half. Check out our video for a visual guide.
[Pro tip: wetting your cup before inserting it often makes the process easier and more comfortable]
Next, we’re going to insert the tall side of the cup into the vagina, towards the spine. Once the cup is completely inside the vaginal canal, it should pop open, but this doesn’t always happen naturally. We recommend turning the cup by the base a few times and then running your index finger around the bottom of the cup to feel for any folds. When the cup is properly inserted, you should feel no folds and the best part, you should be able to stand up, walk around and not feel it at all!
The best position to insert your cup is sitting, we recommend over the toilet. Some people like the “sumo squat” where you square up to your imaginary opponent and squat down. But, if you’re really struggling and no amount of deep breaths in the world is making it happen, try lying on your back with your knees bent.
Ok, so now the cup is in, yes girl! Look at you go! Have a cookie, you’ve earned it.
You now have up to 12 hours to go about your life. Freedom is here! You can swim, run, high jump or even just go to school without having to awkwardly scurry off to the bathroom every few hours to change your tampon. And as for night-time, you’ll enjoy a solid eight hours where you can lay as a star fish as you like, without destroying your sheets. Yes, please, sign us up!
Removing your menstrual cup
When it comes to removing your cup, people visualise the worst. Sure, there are running jokes about emptying your menstrual cup causing your bathroom to look like a crime scene, but that’s honestly like telling someone the first time they try to cook pasta sauce, the entire kitchen is going to be painted in Bolognese. We are ladies. We got this.
When removing your cup, it’s important to repeat Step One- deep breathe. It’s not uncommon for you to panic a little your first time removing the cup. You’re going to reach for the stem of the cup and if you can’t immediately grab it, your brain’s going to tell you “It’s stuck forever. It now lives there permanently; you’ll never get it out”. None of this is true, the cup cannot get lost inside you, it can only hang out in the vaginal canal, which is a different size for everyone but generally between 3-6 inches. For lots of women, peeing helps because the right muscles clench and move the cup down, closer to the vagina. We know that’s TMI, but isn’t this whole article TMI?
Grab the stem of your cup and wiggle it down. There will be some resistance, which is a good thing. The cup stays in place during the day because it creates a seal against the vaginal walls. That’s why it won’t fall out during a triple, reverse somersault dive, off an Olympic platform. Once the base of the cup is outside the vagina, push your index finger into the side of the cup. This will break the seal and allow the cup to be removed. The first time can be uncomfortable, but as you learn how to break the seal, you’ll be a pro in no time! Depending on the person, you’ll need to empty your period cup between 2–4 times a day.
Success (Yes girl!)
You might be surprised how little blood is in the cup after 12 hours. We’ve been changing pads for so long, we’ve never actually known how much we bleed. If your cup is full after 12 hours, you might want to remove it more regularly, if it’s not, then you can happily change it every 12 hours and go about your day.
After removing the cup, empty the contents in the toilet or down the sink. Some people like to remove it in the shower because the blood exits stage left with no mess at all! Rinse the cup with clean water or a tissue. We recommend water because it doubles as a lubricant to help reinsert the cup.
And now you’re a menstrual cup goddess. Remember, deep breathe, be chill, you’re doing more for the environment than most political leaders, water is your friend, keep your cup clean, keep your hands clean and feel free to do a cartwheel any time the cup is in.
Help end period poverty
The Cova Project is a women's charity that provides menstrual cups and menstrual health education to girls in developing communities across Africa. If you’re interested in donating a cup to a girl living without access to sanitary products, click here. One cup is $7 and it can change a girl’s life for up to 10 years.
Menstrual cup goddesses unite!
