“In the Words of Nefertiti ‘Not tonight, its my pyramid’” - Robin Williams

As I mentioned before, the Diva cup is a reusable, silicone menstrual product. For those who don’t want to hear about it, you’ve been warned.

It comes with the little pouch, to store it, and the pin you see in the lower right corner of the photo. Isn’t that nice? I can now wear it and show my support for my menstrual product!

First Night: I started my period and kicked my heels in glee. I can try my new toy! I grabbed my Diva cup, in its handy drawstring bag, the instructions, and went to the bathroom.

Directions: Press sides of cup together and fold it in half again forming a tight ‘U’ shape.

Hold the folded sides firmly together with your thumb on one side and your four fingers on the other side below the top ridge of the cup.

“Ok. That seems easy enough.” Cup pops open. Tries again. There we go. Next.

Directions: In a comfortable position, either standing, sitting on the toilet or squatting, insert the Diva Cup in the following manner. (the following manner being a very long bit of directions basically saying, stick the ‘U’ in, push, relax, it’ll pop open, keep pushing until the stem is sticking out)

Dude. It was much harder than it sounded written down. Maybe because I was nervous, but, while I wasn’t dry, I couldn’t get the damn thing inside me enough for it to even pop open. I tried two or three times, thinking all the while “If I only had some goddamn Vaseline or something, this would be so much easier, but damnit, Vaseline breaks down silico…holy shit, I have water based lube”

I ran, got my trusty Babelube, and lubed the edge of the Diva cup. THIS was much better. It still took a few tries since my fingers and the cup were slippery, and it kept popping open, but once I dried off my fingers, it slid right in.

Directions: IMORTANT: Finally, pinch the base of the cup (not the stem) and five it one full rotation in either direction. It must spin easily and this ensures that it has popped open and is positioned horizontally towards your tailbone.

This was actually the hardest part. I had to pull the cup out a bit, and twist my hand around to make sure I actually twisted the cup, and that it was positioned right.

I had to futz around a bit to get it back inside me enough that just the stem was sticking out. At one point, I thought I had it, but then I coughed and felt it in the wrong place. A little more futzing, and I didn’t feel a thing as I walked back to my room.

Right now, I’m somewhat aware of it inside me, but not in an uncomfortable way. It’s mostly that I know it’s there.

Now that the silicone has retained my body heat, I don’t feel it at all! Whee!

The next morning, I took the cup out, which was much easier than putting it in, but when I finished washing it out and such; I had a much better time putting it in.

The one thing people said to me was ‘OMG, but what if you touch your own blood when you take it out!’

See, first of all, I’m the least squeamish person you’ll ever meet. Blood, not a problem. Secondly, the blood gets caught inside the cup, and if it’s positioned properly, it doesn’t leak.

For the first time in my life, I wore a menstrual product that didn’t leak. It was awesome to not have to think about leakage, and if it was time to go change my tampon. I put it in in the morning, emptied and cleaned it before, bed, and only once checked it during the day – on heavy flow day, to see how it was holding up.

By the end of my cycle, I was fairly proficient in inserting and removing the cup. Once my flow started up as usual, I didn’t have any of the lubrication issues I had the first night. It was comfortable to sleep in, to sit in, to walk around in, to ride the subway in, and I love love love it.

I adore this thing. I am never ever ever going to use tampons again. Yay for the DivaCup!

A+ bitches!