Am I supposed to *feel *this thing so much? It’s not so bad when I’m sitting, but when I stand up, it feels like a tampon that’s falling out! The instructions do say the little stem should be “at the opening of the vagina”, and the picture shows it between the labia. It feels weird. Am I doing it wrong? Did you get used to it?
I have a DivaCup, not a Keeper, but it also has a stem. Or had one, as I ended up cutting it pretty much all the way off (in stages). I can grip the bottom of it just fine for removal, and it doesn’t poke me unless I’ve got it positioned wrong.
I found that I could feel my Keeper a lot more than my Diva Cup. I think because the Diva Cup is so flexible and has a shorter stem. This is part of why I switched. Cutting the stem very short on the Keeper helps. Also, I find that wearing them up a little higher in the vagina is more comfortable. You just have to bear down a little to be able to grasp it for removal if you do.
I have a DivaCup, and personally I just push it up pretty far and let it find its own level. The stem didn’t bother me for the first couple of cycles, but now I find that it pokes me a bit, so I am thinking of trimming it a tiny bit. Other than this occasional poking, the only time I feel the cup is when it isn’t quite in the right place.
I also discovered through the menstrual_cups community on Livejournal a much better fold for insertion. It’s the punchdown fold, but turn it upside down so the punched-down bit is down. It goes in more comfortably than the c-fold, and pops open reliably for me without me having to maneuver it any more.
I’m afraid of losing it, though! I know, I know, silly. But I once lost a sponge in there, and I’m terrified of going through that sort of panic again. (My mom had to get it out for me. My MOM!!! Can you imagine how uncomfortable that was for us both?!) I couldn’t find my cervix with a road map and OnStar. I know, I know, the cup is too big to lose, right? But it’s also slippery as all heck!
I’ll check Live Journal for the other fold. I found that mine popped open pretty quickly after getting just into the vagina, but I was still able to push it further in while it was open. The last two inches or so it kinda sucked *itself *in there! That was a little panicky moment, but it stopped right when the cup was all the way in but the stem still out.
Hey, I put a TMI warning in the title! 
I hope for his sake that Omegaman’s not reading this thread!
Bought a DivaCup. Hated it. Never use it. Stem poked me, could feel it in there anyway, really don’t want to be poking my fingers up in there if I don’t have to. Blah.
:eek: :eek: :eek:
I had to return my Divacup to the seller because I simply couldn’t get it in there. I did once, and then it just hurt like all hell’s a-comin’. That was the smallest size (it looked enormous!). Are there smaller cups on the market? Or at least softer cups? Because, ow.
I know, I had a total humiliation episode just reading that.
Tell me about it. I should have just coughed up the $500 to go to the ER.
So, um…it won’t come out. :smack: I can’t seem to get my finger up alongside it far enough to break the seal. It’s only been in a few hours, so I’m just going to leave it be for now. I figure either it’ll get full and the seal will break because of that or I’ll die of shame.
Can you wiggle it out a bit by the stem till you can get a grip on it, or is the seal too good for that? Didn’t one Doper say that she had to use pliers to get her Keeper out? (sorry, I guess that’s not helping)
Walpurgis, there are several companies making cups now, and I believe that both the Lunette and the Ladycup are supposed to be made of a less stiff silicone than the DivaCup.
Upon checking, the Lunette is said to be firmer than the DivaCup, but the Ladycup is apparently fairly squishy.
I have a DivaCup (thanks to the SDMB!) and trimmed off most of the stem pretty early on. I insert the DC just as far as it takes to not feel the remaining bit of stem, which isn’t too far, and haven’t had trouble getting it out. That said, in order to reliably and comfortably remove it, I always get my legs as wide as possible, sit on the john and spend a couple of seconds mentally and physically relaxing before I stick a finger and thumb up there to break the seal. Once I’ve got a grip, then I do a bit of a push with the muscles and a simultaneous gentle pull with the fingers. I don’t know if the Keeper will respond to a similar procedure, but here I am posting anyway.
As for the silicone being stiff, the first time I use it each month I run it under seriously hot water, which seems to soften it up a bit.
Judging by my post count I think I post only in these threads, heh
Try just pinching the bottom of the cup and gently tugging a bit, the seal will break. That’s what I do, and I don’t have any problems getting it out.
They can be slippery little bastards… I am always paranoid I am gonna drop it in the toilet- ew.
WhyNot, it sounds like your cervix rides really high all the time, then?
- Relax, bear down, and stay like that.
1a. Use off hand to spread your lips. - Wet your dominant hand to reduce friction.
- Stick dominant hand’s thumb and pointer finger in to grab the lower part of the cup and pull it down. (I skip this step since my cup rides really low)
- Stick middle finger further up and in (try pushing out the side of the canal to avoid pushing up the cup by accident) to push at the top part of the cup until the seal’s broken.
- Pull cup out.
For the record, I tried out the Insteads last month out of curiosity and also because I couldn’t find my cup. I blame the cats. The Insteads sit really differently from the Divacup due to the way they’re respectively designed (Insteads are more like a diaphragm). I felt like the Insteads were always poking me in my right ovary, even if I didn’t spring a leak and could go a good bit longer without replacing the works. So I was in continuing discomfort, and finally went with a pad for my last day because I was fed up with it.
I also disliked strongly the fact that you’re supposed to just chuck the lot like a pad or a tampon, since a lot of the reason for my using a cup is the reusability factor.
Also, for the cup: I find standing gives me an easier angle to pull it out. For the Instead, the best angle was sitting on the toilet. This is due to the way that the two items sit – one’s more vertical, one’s more horizontal.
Please please please help me! In Australia we don’t have cups or keepers and the mind is boggling at how this thing works! All we have are sanitary pads and tampons. Please give me a link or draw me a picture so I can get my head around how this thing goes in, what it does and what it looks like! Thanx!
Is your mom busy tonight? 
That’s for the Mooncup, and the pictures are a bit small and idealized, but you get the gist of how a menstrual cup fits in there.
Oh, Wikipedia has a good article with pictures and measurements of the reusable/disposable kinds of cups in both metric and Imperial. 
I let my DivaCup ride pretty high, and just bear down when I’m trying to take it out. Haven’t had any major problems with it so far. The one thing I have discovered is that it is inevitably messy upon removal, so I carry around a pack of baby wipes when I have to go out. (On lighter days I can go for almost an entire day before I have to empty it, but sometimes my flow is so heavy I need to empty it every couple hours.)
If it’s any consolation, WhyNot, my first test run with a DivaCup went so badly (both getting it in and getting it out) that I decided the whole thing just wasn’t for me. Perhaps with more practice things would have gotten better, but I didn’t feel the benefits were worth the effort for me.
And it’s not like I have issues with sticking a finger or two up there if I have to for such reasons. I’ve found I can use tampons without applicators without any difficulty.
It will come out. If mine did, yours will!