On using the Diva Cup - Page 4

[mykdsmomy]

Yay, OP, so glad it's working out for you

I'm jumping in here too because I have a question for all you seasoned cup users
I bought a Diva cup several years ago. (I have since accidentally threw it in the trash while moving )

Anyway....I could never get it out without feeling like I was pulling my liver out with it The suction was so great that it hurt when it was on too...like it had a death grip on my cervix. I used the #2 so it wasn't that it was too small (I don't think). I wound up traumatizing my cervix ...really. It was also causing more cramping, etc because of all the tugging, twisting I was doing. I tried every which way to break the seal before pulling it out but I could never do it. Has this happened to anyone?

[Viola]

I'm not sure if that has happened to me. I do remember one time having a hard time getting mine out the first or second month, it felt like it had really been pulled up around my cervix, but in general I have the opposite problem. I have had it pop out once, falling into the toilet, and it will slide down almost coming out if I cough too hard. Supposedly you aren't supposed to put it up around your cervix, at least how the diagram shows it, but it seems like it's got to be fairly far up there to make sure it isn't hitting you in uncomfortable places.

Mine leaks pretty much all the time during my heaviest days, and I find I don't always wear it during my light days, but when I do, it doesn't leak then. It can leak at night because I think lying down changes the pressure on it, or something. I always wear a cloth pad with it. Part of it is that it can get filled up pretty quickly, like in an hour or two, and so I just have to change it frequently during my heavy days, and if I don't, I think it leaks then. The first two days of my period are crazy now that I've had children.

I still love mine, though, because before I was wearing tampons and pads and still leaking all over my clothes, and now things are just so much neater. I also apparently have a tipped uterus, and my cervix tips back, so in the beginning I felt like I was banging the edge of my cervix with one side of it, but it seems to fit better now, maybe my cervix is straightening out or something.

[momo7]

That's one thing I did notice about the diva cup....it does have a tendency to "stay put"...one thing that I found out was if you bear down on it as you tug just a bit, while using your finger tips to gently pull it. Try to gently fold in the sides as you pull it in a slanted down ward motion, not straight down, this will make it easier to get out.

The first time I tried to get it I thought it was stuck.

[blumooned]

I got one & am on my 2nd day using it - so far I love it! I had no problems getting it situated (2 tries, I guess!) & haven't felt it yet. I'm probably emptying more than I need to & wearing a back-up pantyliner, but I'm still nervous it will leak. No leaks yet, though!

I think I have the opposite "problem" of everyone else - mines seems to travel up a little, instead of down. After the first overnight, it was up way farther than when I put it in. But, I could still reach it, thankfully.

So, I'm going to re-ask (since there were only a couple replies) - what soap do you use to clean it? So far, I haven't used any (just water) b/c it says to use unscented & we don't have any.
Also, do you really boil it after each cycle? (I'm a little nervous to cook it in the same pot I use for food.)

[mykdsmomy]

I didn't boil mine when I had it. I think it says somewhere not to do that? I think extra hot water with some vinegar would work too. I think I just used some dishsoap

[Ola_]

I use ordinary handsoap (I'll bet it's scented but not like crazy perfume-y) though I don't use it each time.

I boil it every couple of cycles. It's fine as long as you don't let the water boil away. I just put the pot in the dishwasher after. Plus I figure it's boiling water so it's killing whatever might transfer from the cup to the pot, right? All the same, I don't do it while DH is home. On the DivaCup site they say to do this, they also say NOT to use vinegar, peroxide, or bleach.

[*bejeweled*]

When mine gets stuck, I bear down while gently turning it. When you turn it, it breaks the seal and makes it easier to remove.

[Smokering]

Just to be contrary... I HATED my Diva cup. With a fiery passion.

I first bought it about three days before I found out I was pregnant. For $80, no less. I wanted to sell it, but figured, who'd buy a second-hand Diva cup? Talk about skeezy Ebay listings! So I kept it. And then I got my cycle back at 14 months PP. And after a few months I ran out of disposable pads, and thought I might as well give it a go.

Well, "pre-childbirth size" or not, it certainly wasn't too small. I had tremendous difficulty inserting the darned thing and getting it out again HURT. Plus, there was no way I could remove it "tactfully" - I had to do it in the shower one time and it looked like a crime scene afterwards. I actually felt woozy for a moment when trying to wrest it from my vagina's death grip - it was the most horrible sensation. Given that I've always hated tampons, I have no idea why I thought inserting a cup the size of a beer mug would be a pleasant, convenient way to spend 5 days every month.

Soooo, yeah. I now own an even skeezier "slightly used" Diva cup that is even less sellable. And because I didn't need it for about two years after purchasing it, I can't return it. But it's not for everyone. I don't entirely blame the cup - I had a cervical smear recently which I found incredibly traumatic, so it seems I just have a Thing about foreign objects. And it's entirely possible I was inserting it wrong - but good grief, I'm not going to give it another shot. Eugh. I started sewing cloth pads that very day, and am perfectly happy with them.