Review of FemmyCycle Menstrual Cup- An Amazing and Unique Product

Ok, I'm warning you in advance, this post will contain a lot of things that fall under the TMI (too much information) category, so if you don't appreciate that type of thing, this is the type of post you'd probably want to be skipping. I don't want any of y'all to read it and then say "Hey, that was way too much info, more than we bargained for, why did you do this to us?" Consider this your first and final warning. Men especially, I can assure you, you probably don't want to read this. (Unless for whatever reason you don't mind reading about women's menstrual cycles....)

With that said, I wanted to share a review about this menstrual cup that is just really different than everything else out there on the market- the FemmyCycle. And I wanted to share that I have no obligation to write this post, anything I'm writing is because I hope it will benefit at least some of you readers. I'm not getting compensated for this- I'll share a bit more below about the specifics of that.

For those of you that don't know what it is, a menstrual cup is just about the best type of menstrual product out there, in my not so humble opinion. 

It is a receptacle, usually made of silicon, that is placed inside the vaginal canal to catch menstrual blood, and it is then dumped out, reused, etc.... 

From a frugality perspective it is great- it means no more monthly expenses of menstrual products. Yes, cloth pads also are generally a one time expense, but then there is the need to keep on washing them and keeping up with laundry, and I think I've written in a previous post that laundry is one of those household chores that I have the hardest time with. And, eventually, with all the washing, cloth menstrual pads eventually do fall apart and need to be replaced. 

From a green perspective, menstrual cups are also pretty amazing- it's a reusable product so no more disposable products filling the landfills. 

From a convenience factor, menstrual cups are also terrific- I've traveled internationally and not needed to bring with or buy any menstrual products with me because I just had one tiny little thing to carry along with me. I just keep it in my pocketbook between cycles so I'm never caught unawares. I've gone camping and not needed to worry about what to do with dirty menstrual products... Another plus of menstrual cups over cloth pads.

Cloth pads are great for postpartum, when you aren't allowed to use a menstrual cup until your postpartum bleeding stopped and your uterus heals, but for the rest of the time, menstrual cups just top them. You can go swimming in menstrual cups and do gymnastics and hike and not have to worry about a pad slipping out of place and leaking. 

For people that are sensitive to chemicals in menstrual products, both cloth pads and menstrual cups work well.

And, oh, did I mention that many claim that menstrual cups make their cycle shorter?

Basically, if you haven't gotten a menstrual cup yet, I highly recommend getting one.

If this sounds familiar, it's because I've already posted before about menstrual cups. The MoonCup. 

And I hadn't planned on posting about menstrual cups again. But then life happened.

Because I got my period and I couldn't find my Mooncup. And I didn't want to wear pads, not after I was so used to the convenience of a menstrual cup. And no tampons for me either. I hate tampons. I hate how they make you feel if you take them out when they're not all the way full. (Just thinking about that while writing this was giving me the chills... shudder...)

At a loss what to do, trying desperately to find my MoonCup, I looked everywhere I thought it should be, and rediscovered the FemmyCycle menstrual cup I was given for free in exchange for a review quite a few years ago. 

I couldn't even remember what it was called, I got it that long ago...

Grasping for straws in my mind, I took a shot in the dark, thinking that maybe it was my friend Leah who sent it to me, and I was right. She confirmed that it was from her company, Vegan-Love.com, and that it was called the FemmyCycle.

You see, when I first got the FemmyCycle, I tried to use it, and couldn't get it to work. The FemmyCycle is not your standard menstrual cup. Most menstrual cups out there are more or less bell shaped, you fold it up, shove it inside, it opens up, and trapped by the vaginal wall, it collects menstrual blood. There are slight variations in shape and design, but more or less all the menstrual cups on the market work the same way.

See the Lunette menstrual cup as an example of the shape and design of most menstrual cups on the market. A bell shape. A stem. That's it.

The FemmyCycle is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. 

It's a ball shape. And not just a ball shape, but it has a funnel inside it, that, in order to empty out, you need to invert. When inverted, it looks like a tear drop shape, more or less, with the top pointy bit cut off. Because of this shape, it actually makes it less likely to spill the menstrual cup when removing it. The ball shape also makes it fit more snugly. And it's kind of what drove me crazy, and why I couldn't get this to work for me until recently.

Basically, with the standard menstrual cups, you have them unfold inside you and then they look and feel exactly the way they do when they are outside you. The FemmyCycle also needs to be unfolded once inside, but it won't look and feel like the ball once inside- it's got a vacuum in it and is all scrunched up inside you. I kept on trying to get the FemmyCycle to open up inside me and I rarely was able to get it, and the few times I did get it to open up, it didn't catch what it was supposed to, because it wasn't in me properly. After my failed attempt, I contacted Leah and told her that I couldn't get it to work, and she told me to skip the review.

So, as I was saying, I'm not being compensated for this. I've had this in my house for a few years already, and I'm just sharing this because now that I got it to work for me, I'm so thrilled with it, and vastly prefer it to the MoonCup and wanted to share it with you, so you could also benefit from this information. (I eventually found my MoonCup, and decided not to switch back, because this one was so much better.)

Because of my experience, I wanted to share what I learned with you, how to get this menstrual cup to work for you, so you won't repeat my failed attempt.

Regular menstrual cups, it doesn't matter how high or where exactly you place them in your vagina. You just want it to be high enough that you don't feel it.

Not with the FemmyCycle. To get the FemmyCycle to actually work (at least from my experience), you need to wear it all the way up next to your cervix, and have the funnel sit on top of your cervix. When that happens, there are no, no, no, no spills or leaks. It all goes straight in. Even though I loved my moon cup, I always wore a backup, because there were some small leaks sometimes, and I thought it just was inevitable with a menstrual cup because of my body shape. (Even more TMI than before... after birthing four kids, I knew some stuff changed inside me... It did, I have a weak pelvic floor and various prolapses of various sorts. And that might explain why the MoonCup leaked for me a bit- I only started using it after my fourth was born- and I assume the prolapsy parts made things weirdly shaped in there and affected the seal, but I don't know for sure.)  But I was wrong! This one has no leaks.

As long as you get it in right.

So here's how you do that.

You fold it up. There are all sorts of ways to do this, but I just fold it in half.

And then push it inside. With my fingers, I then make sure that the circle at the top of the funnel has fully opened, and then feel to make sure that it is in place around my cervix. I have really long fingers and this sometimes isn't super easy for me, as apparently I have a high cervix. For people with low cervixes there is another slightly different shaped cup that is more ideal for them. I have the standard one and it works for me.

Once it's in place, you can just forget about it.

To remove it, some people find you need to break the seal by pressing on it. I could never figure out how to do that, but didn't find it necessary. I just put my finger in the ring and tug it out and voila. Yes, that's another difference between this one and the other ones. There's a ring on the bottom instead of the stem. And since it sits so much higher up, the ring is necessary. But fortunately doesn't bother me the way the stem did on my menstrual cup. (I had to cut off the stem to be able to use mine comfortably.) When I put in the FemmyCycle, the ring just folds up and presses against the squished up ball inside me.

Ok, since this is a fully honest review, I'm going to add the two down sides. First of all, there's the learning curve for this, which I experienced and already shared. They recommend you use backup the first three cycles until you get it down pat, and then afterwards backup isn't necessary. 

The second down side is that when you're traveling this is less easy to clean and change because of the funnel position. While I wash out my cup in between uses when using a bathroom that has a sink right near the toilet, when traveling and using public restrooms, I use toilet paper to wipe out 

my MoonCup after dumping out its contents. Because of the funnel shape of the FemmyCycle and smaller opening once inverted, I can't really fit toilet paper inside to wipe it clean. I can just dump it out and that's it.

However, another thing that I didn't mention is that the FemmyCycle simply holds more than the average menstrual cup. Much more. So even though it is less easy to clean when out, thus far I've found that I just don't need to change it when out of the house, because it can just hold that much in it and can wait until I'm back home for the night. So this negative isn't even really such a negative, because it is outweighed by the larger volume.

I'm really glad that I lost my MoonCup, so that I could give my FemmyCycle another chance and discover just how awesome and how much better it was. 

If you want to buy it, go to the Vegan Love Store and enjoy! They ship around the world.

P.S. Another product that I get from the Vegan Love company is Contragel, an all natural vegan spermicidal gel that I use with my diaphragm. (Which, although I'm not posting about it, can I share just how much I love it??? And even though people think it isn't effective... let's just say my daughter is going to be 4 years old next month, and so far the combination of Contragel and my diaphragm has been working very well, thank you very much. )

Anyhow, this was definitely a TMI post, but I'm really hoping that some of you will be helped by this and consider giving the FemmyCycle a shot. It's totally revolutionized how I have my period.

Do you use a menstrual cup? What menstrual products do you tend to use? Have you ever heard of the FemmyCycle? Does this look like something you'd try out?