For years, women have used either tampons or pads to collect blood and protect clothing during their periods. But a menstrual cup provides women with an alternative to these traditional methods. Some are long-lasting and reusable, while others are disposable.

Menstrual cup basics and advantages

Aren’t sure what a menstrual cup is? It’s a flexible cup designed for use inside the vagina during your period to collect menstrual blood. The cup actually collects the menstrual flow rather than absorbing it as tampons or pads do.

Most menstrual cups are made of silicone or rubber. I always remind my patients that if they’re latex-sensitive, they should make certain to purchase a cup made entirely of silicone.

You can use a cup all the way through your cycle, but you might need to change it more often on heavy flow days to guard against leaking. Remove and rinse your cup after 12 hours, or when leaking occurs.

Advantages of menstrual cups include:

• Lower costs and less landfill waste. Some cups are designed for long-term use – even years – providing a significant cost saving over tampons and pads. Since you can reuse them, there’s less waste to clog up our landfills and fewer trees sacrificed to make the paper-based alternatives. Keep in mind that some cups are designed to be disposable. Make sure you read the box label carefully before buying if you want a reusable one.
• Less embarrassing odor. You won’t have to worry about embarrassing menstrual odor wafting out at the most inopportune times since the fluid doesn’t get exposed to air as it does with pads and tampons.
• Vaginal pH and beneficial bacteria stay in place. Tampons absorb all your vaginal fluid along with the blood, which may disturb the delicate pH and bacterial balance in your vagina.
• Fewer visits to the pharmacy. Even if you replace your cup once a year, you’ll still make 11 fewer trips to the pharmacy than you would if you used the disposable paper-based methods.
• More time between changes. You need to change tampons every four to eight hours, depending on flow. You can go up to 12 hours with a menstrual cup before emptying.
• Intercourse is possible with the cup in place. It’s possible to have intercourse while the cup is in your vagina. It’s really a personal choice whether you want to remove it first or not.
• Easy to use. Anyone who has used tampons, especially the kind without applicators, should have little trouble learning how to insert a menstrual cup. If you’ve ever used a diaphragm for birth control, you’ll have even less trouble learning how to use your new cup. Simply fold it so it looks like a tampon, aim it toward the back of the vagina and give a little push. It should actually draw itself up. When inserted properly, you shouldn’t feel its presence at all.