Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Alright, I've been waiting to buy a menstrual cup for probably half a year, since I wanted to use up my remaining tampons. I, however, didn't realize that I have half a million tampons in storage. Well, 6 months later, here we are! I'm 19 for reference and haven't given birth so I bought the smaller size. I received it in the mail and anxiously waited for my period to arrive. I chose this one simply for price and that the came with a cute little bag. Anyways, so I did a practice run the day before my period normally starts. I know you aren't supposed to do that with tampons because of TSS, so I figured it was okay with this. It was only for an hour anyways. It took me a bit to get it in and positioned right the first time, that's for sure. I couldn't for the life of me get it to open up! It took a lot of reaching for me to realize that it was in fact open and sealed, but still in the shape of a taco... perhaps I just have a narrow hoo-ha. I left it in there for an hour and came back to check. As I suspected it would, the cup had receded inside me and I had a 10 minute panic attack when I couldn't get it out. (Honestly, this is gross, but taking a poop really helped push it down half an inch and I grabbed it with no problem). Phew, glad that was over. Fast forward to the next day when my period came and I got the cup in with no problem (still not convinced it was fully open so I wore a sanitary napkin just in case) and waited for either a leakage, or nothing. The whole day passed and there wasn't even a teeny tiny leak. I was impressed since I ALWAYS leak with a tampon, no matter the size. Again, taking it out proved to be a bit of a challenge size the suction was strong and I had to pull pretty hard. I may or may not have dumped the entire contents into my hand and then preceded to laugh and gag simultaneously, but that's for another day. Now, my period is almost over and I have perfected the art of creating the seal and emptying it out with (minimal) mess. I still refuse to take it out in public since I definitely would like to have a sink next to me to toss it in, and not have to worry about pulling my pants up with bloodied hands. Gross? Probably. But I had a lot of issues with tampons. Mainly, they leaked and it really annoyed me. I also hated grabbing the string when I peed. And I found that when I coughed a lot or sneezed, the tampon would shift downward and sometimes be extremely painful. They also kinda stink. They're expensive. They produce a tonnnnn of waste. And lastly, my male roommates/family do not appreciate trash cans filled with tampons. So there. I finally got a menstrual cup and it's as wonderful as I thought it would be. I honestly can't figure out why everyone doesn't have one. Whatevs. ***UPDATE 12/11/15*** I've had, what, 9 periods since I bought this? Something like that! Yup, still love it. I've had no notable issues with this and can't ever imagine going back to tampons. My biggest thing about this is that I can leave it in all day. I don't think I have a particularly light flow, I used to fill up a tampon every 4 hours at my heaviest, pre-menstrual cup. I leave this sucker in for 24 hours. Heck, 36 and I haven't had a problem. It's like I don't even have a period anymore! I wear a super thin panty liner and don't worry at all about leaks. No more digging in my butt crack to find a string, no more hohlding the string to the side when I pee, no more clogged toilets or stinky trashcans. I've seen the light, ladies. I can die happy now. ***UPDATE 6/30/17*** Wow, this got a ton of "helpful" votes. I feel kind of famous now. To the important part. The cup and I? Well cups. We're still besties. The pink one and I just got back from 6 month backpacking trip around the world. We had a blast together. Along the way I met tons of girls who complained about period troubles. I put my hand on their shoulder, looked them right in the eyes and said, "I have the solution you've been looking for." Ok, haha, done being dramatic. Seriously though, traveling was a breeze with these. I hiked, I surfed, I did yoga, no public bathroom for 12 hours? No problem. Final note and my first *complaint*: After, what, 2 full years my menstrual cups are in *almost* perfect condition. They're not pink or purple anymore, they're brown. Guess the blood stains them after awhile. Even though they're perfectly clean, they don't look like it.