My First Experience with Re-Usable Menstrual Products (RUMPs) Part Two

If you haven't already, please read my previous post My First Experience with Re-Usable Menstrual Products (RUMPs) Part One, as this follows on from that.

Day One (Day Two of my cycle):
Upon receiving my cup, I immediately raced to the bathroom to see how it would go.
Armed with my laptop and cup, I prepared myself. I folded my cup using the punch-down fold and tried to insert it.I didn't seem to be able to get it up past the rim.
After beginning to feel as though I had been wrong about my revolutionary world saving menstrual cup, I turned to on of Bree's videos designed to help those new to the RUMPs world. Honestly such a lifesaver!
Bree is a youtuber whose main goal is to help educate people about RUMPs, as well as other matters relevant to the female reproductive system. She has tons of videos comparing different cup, so I would recommend checking them out before purchasing your own.

Anyway, after my many failed attempts at insertion, I finally got it in! The stem poked out just the tiniest amount, but I figured I would wait until I was sure before trimming it, but otherwise it was great! No leaking or discomfort unless I walked around too much.

After around 5 hours, just before going to bed, I decided to take it out and empty it. Honestly, I was disappointed with the tiny amount that was there - the blood only reached the 5 ml measuring line (about 1/6 of the total capacity). I re-inserted, put on a pad just incase and hoped for the best.

Day Two:
The first night of using my cup was fantastic! No leaks or discomfort, but the best thing was I could get up in the morning and take my time to get to the bathroom, as the horrible waterfall feeling when getting up in the morning was now a thing of the past!

However the greatness of this day was short lived. As it was a school day, I put on a backup pad and inserted my cup. It felt as though it had been inserted properly and I could hardly feel it. Spoiler alert: This is when it starts to get bad. Literally within the first two minutes of leaving my house, I began to feel this strange and almost painful rubbing inside my vagina, making it very uncomfortable to walk.I decided that it was fine; I could make it to school, it's only forty minutes away.
Boy did I regret that! The rest of the walk and train ride was filled with pain and images of my cup falling out and leaking everywhere!
As soon as I got to school I raced to the bathroom and had no choice but to pull the thing out.I knew that I was supposed to wash it out with water, but as I had none ( unless of course, I wanted to clean out my bloody cup in the middle of peak bathroom hour!) I used toilet paper, and was happily surprised by how well it worked. I re-inserted and hoped for the best.

By lunch it was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable, and when I went to the bathroom, I discovered that it had started leaking. I pulled it out and noticed that there was some blood in the cup - I assumed that it had not opened properly, so half of the blood was caught, and the other half leaked straight past the cup.

The nest time that I took it out was when I was at work, so again I wasn't able to wash it out. As earlier, this turned out fine, and it didn't leak or feel uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

Day Three:
As this was the forth day of my period, I didn't use it after this day.
Similarly to the previous day, I woke up happy; no leaks, no pain and no complaints. This day was a weekend so I didn't have much on the agenda apart from going swimming in the morning for which I used a tampon just to be sure. The day went on as usual, and passed without many leaks and only mild cramping, which was solved with a heat pack and some Mintec (peppermint oil).

Overall, my experience was not as successful as I would have hoped, but I'm not giving up on it just yet!

Bella
xxx

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