My son’s swim lessons forced me to find menstrual alternatives. Hello, DivaCup.

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We put Bear back into swimming this year because he needed to do something other than being at home all day and binging out on Roblox. For the life of me, I still have no idea what the hell Roblox is but I digress.

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About a week ago, Bear started swimming and well, for the sake of puns I love so much, everything was going swimmingly. *ba dum tss!*

My period started on Saturday. Not a big deal. I went out and purchased my favorite brand, The Honey Pot, (and I highly recommend it if you haven’t tried it). I settled in with a bunch of pain reliever, lots of water, and just chilled.

I was quickly reminded while that was on Saturday, Bear’s swim lessons resumed bright and early that Monday morning.

Yikes.

I freaked out a bit. Bear has private swim lessons so it’s really just him and the teacher. I’m in the water with Bear. I probably could’ve told the teacher about my situation and she probably would’ve been understanding about it.

Or, I could say…’Is there another solution without putting my business on front street like that?’

For years, I’ve heard many women talk about the menstrual cup and how they swore up and down about it. I never really paid too much attention to it. I’ve worn pads for years. Me and tampons are not good friends and I decided I’ll never try to change too much from familiarity.

Now I was forced to.

I was on Day 2 of my cycle, which meant my flow was spectacularly heavy. I didn’t have too many choices. Well, I actually had a lot of choices but none of them was anything I wanted to do:

Try my best with tampons again and hoped good luck!
Sit it out and ask an instructor to get in the water with Bear.
Wear pads while I’m in the pool and yeah, I’ve done that before and it sucks.

And then there was the last option:

Try a menstrual cup.

I decided to go with Choice 4.

As I perused around CVS, I was left with a couple of choices between brands. A quick Google search recommended the DivaCup. I decided to go with the DivaCup 2 since I was over 30 and had given birth.

I went home and prepared boiling hot water to sanitize it. As I waited, I did all of the Dr. Googling I could find on the DivaCup. Was it right for me? What were the good reviews? What were the bad reviews? What was the learning curve?

Most importantly, would I freaking leak in a public swimming pool during a pandemic?

After the sanitization and cooling down period, I finally mustered up the courage to put it in. The instruction manual, while daunting at first, was pretty easy to follow.

I decided to do the U-shape to insert. Taking a deep breath and my best Sumo wrestler squat position, I did the deed. I inserted the DivaCup. And as a back-up, I still wore pads. I wasn’t that confident.

I wore it for two hours that night, hoping I inserted it just right and that my underwear wouldn’t look like a horror film. After two hours, I finally removed it, emptied it, rinsed it out, and re-inserted.

Success!

Now, came the real test; the swim lessons.

I put in the DivaCup literally right before we were getting ready to leave and left for the lessons. Bear’s lessons are only 30-minutes long. I wore my swim suit and drove. No problems. When it was time to get into the water, I wondered if this was a good idea and maybe I could just sit it out.

I decided, I had to take a risk. The damn thing set me back about $35 so I needed to do it.

Results: I did the swim lessons without any leakage. The DivaCup works!

Here’s my review:

Pros:

Cost-effective. Since you’re only buying one, you’ll effectively save money every month. I know for me, my menstrual costs have cut down to nothing almost instantly.
- According to DivaCup, you’ll need to replace the cup once a year. Some users have replaced theirs every 2-5 years.
It holds a lot of liquid at once.
You’ll treat it as if you would a tampon or pad; change every two or every four hours. They say you can leave it up to 12 hours (meaning overnight), but I’m not sure about that. I don’t know if I really want to sleep with that inside me but to each her own.
Little mess. I know. No bullshitting. It really has very little mess.
Very easy to take care of and store. It comes with a cute little pouch.
You can pee and poop without having to remove the cup.
You can clean it by soaking it in boiling water for 3-5 minutes or use a hydrogen peroxide soak for the same length of time. Bleach and other harsh chemicals are not recommended. Some users have said they use just plain soap and water to clean it as well.
- Some women have suggested carrying wet wipes to clean the cup when you’re on the go.

Cons:

If you’re squeamish about period blood, you’re not going to like this at all.
If you don’t like inserting things inside your vagina, you definitely won’t like this.
There is a bit of a learning curve. You won’t instantly ‘get it’ the first cycle. You might understand how it works the second or third cycle.
- Other women have stated they have gotten the hang of DivaCup around the 2nd cycle of use.
- You might leak. You won’t leak a whole lot, but you’ll leak until you get it right.
You might not feel the DivaCup, but you’ll probably feel the tip of it. Some women have trimmed it so they don’t feel it.
No returns or exchanges (well, duh), so if you don’t love it, you’re stuck with it or out of money.

Bottom Line:

I do recommend it, but I also recommend using pads or pantyliners until you get the hang of it. I didn’t have to use either when I went swimming (thank God!) but I did find myself using them while I was at home.

If you’re iffy about tampons, but you’re tired of using pads, the DivaCup is a great alternative. While it’ll cost a bit of money upfront, overall, you’ll save a ton of money in the long run. You only need one, you don’t need several.