Inserting Your Menstrual Cup Wrong Can Be Dangerous—Here’s How to Use One Correctly

Menstrual cups are a preferred and extra sustainable approach to handle your interval. However a brand new case examine has consultants reminding folks in regards to the significance of utilizing them correctly.

A BMJ report revealed this month outlined the case of a Danish girl in her 30s who was handled for ache in her proper aspect and decrease stomach, in addition to blood in her urine. She’d been experiencing these signs just a few occasions every week—every episode lasting about an hour—for six months.

After operating exams, scans, and interviews with the affected person, medical doctors theorized that the lady’s ache and bleeding had been brought on by her menstrual cup. They requested her to cease utilizing it, and after a month, her signs had cleared up.

“The CT scan [showed] that the cup was positioned in the appropriate aspect of the vagina, thereby compressing the opening from the ureter to the bladder. The ureter is the tube that drains urine from the kidney to the bladder,” examine creator Clara Maarup Prip, a urologist at Aarhus College Hospital, informed Well being.

Primarily, the menstrual cup was obstructing the movement of urine from the lady’s proper kidney to her bladder, inflicting irritation and different signs, Prip defined.

Blood in urine resulting from an improperly positioned menstrual cup is extraordinarily uncommon, stated Jillian LoPiano, MD, MPH, OB/GYN and chief well being officer at Wisp, a reproductive healthcare telehealth firm. There have solely been just a few different reported instances of this taking place, she defined.

Actually, quite a lot of components should align for this complication to occur, added Michael Baldonieri, MD, OB/GYN generalist at College Hospital Cleveland. These embrace the “dimension of the cup, positioning throughout the vagina, size of utilization, and the affected person’s particular anatomy, which make this most unlikely to happen with common cup utilization,” he informed Well being.

Nonetheless, the case report is an efficient reminder of the significance of correct menstrual cup placement and use, consultants agreed.

“[We need] extra consciousness about attainable problems and the presenting signs of those problems, each amongst menstrual cup customers and clinicians, [as well as] extra consciousness of the significance of selecting the proper form, dimension, and insertion methodology,” stated Prip.

Sometimes product of medical-grade silicone or thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), menstrual cups are small and versatile to allow them to be inserted into the vaginal canal, equally to a tampon. The cup catches menstrual blood because it flows.

“The small, bell-shaped, reusable system is designed to create a small quantity of suction to stop leaks whereas accumulating menstrual blood,” stated Lopiano.

Folks can use these cups for as much as 12 hours earlier than they should be emptied, cleaned, and reinserted. Many are meant for long-term reuse—some could last as long as a decade. Nonetheless, there are disposable ones available on the market, too.

Due to this, menstrual cups have gotten more and more common.

“Latest research present menstrual cups are utilized by 19% of those that menstruate, and principally by these of their 20s and 30s,” LoPiano defined.

Nonetheless, it is determined by the inhabitants, Baldonieri added. “In america, roughly 10% of menstruating folks use menstrual cups. Charges of utilization can vary from 7% of menstruating Turkish folks, to about 23% of Brazilian undergraduate college students,” he stated. “[There] is important geographic variability.”

The truth that menstrual cups aren’t as widespread as pads or tampons is because of quite a lot of components, however there are some drawbacks to utilizing the product.

For one, menstrual cups could also be troublesome or uncomfortable to vary in public restrooms since customers must rinse them out and guarantee they’re cleaned correctly earlier than reinserting them.

“Menstrual cups must be cleaned completely between makes use of to stop the buildup of micro organism,” the Alliance for Interval Provides, a nationwide group centered on offering larger entry to interval merchandise, stated on their web site. “This may be time-consuming and requires entry to wash water and a cleansing resolution, comparable to gentle cleaning soap or a specialised cup cleaner.”

Girls who use intrauterine gadgets (IUDs) also needs to discuss to their physician earlier than utilizing menstrual cups—in uncommon instances, they’ll dislodge IUDs.

Generally, there haven’t been many problems from menstrual cup utilization. Nonetheless, it’s attainable that individuals may expertise infections, ache, vaginal wounds, allergic reactions, interval blood leakage, urinary incontinence, or poisonous shock syndrome.

Regardless of menstrual cups’ rising reputation, analysis has proven that it’s troublesome for ladies to make an knowledgeable alternative about which menstrual cup product they need to use or how one can use it correctly.

In 2021, U.Ok. researchers concluded: “With no correlation between menstrual cup dimension, form, and its quantity, or materials, form, and its firmness, shoppers can’t estimate which menstrual cup is likely to be best suited, and incorrect alternative may trigger damage.”

You probably have questions on whether or not you must use a menstrual cup or which one to strive, your gynecologist ought to be capable to offer you some steering.

When you do begin utilizing a menstrual cup, it’s essential to insert it correctly. Simply know it might take some getting used to—a 2019 examine discovered about one in 4 ladies had points utilizing a menstrual cup for the primary time, although most felt comfy with the product by their third cycle of use.

Earlier than you insert a menstrual cup, first wash your arms with cleaning soap and water. Then, fold the product—most use a C-fold, through which you fold the cup in half to kind a “C” form. However there are different insertion methods too, together with a 7-shape fold, a half-diamond fold, and extra.

“The menstrual cup ought to sit just under your cervix—ought to sit decrease than a tampon—however not be noticeable outdoors the physique or really feel uncomfortable,” stated LoPiano.

As soon as correctly positioned, the cup will open up and match nicely towards the partitions of the vagina with a slight suction.

“Most cups have a stem on the base to help in elimination, and this could sit simply contained in the vaginal opening, so it isn’t seen as soon as positioned,” stated Baldonieri.

Generally, you shouldn’t be capable to really feel a menstrual cup when you’re utilizing it, LoPiano stated. Nonetheless, when first beginning to use the product, you might need slight consciousness or discomfort as your physique adjusts.

“Most individuals don’t have any ache as soon as they discover ways to use it,” she stated. “In case you are feeling any ache or important discomfort, it’s almost certainly being positioned flawed or is simply too giant or small.”

When it’s time to take away the menstrual cup, press the perimeters of the cup to assist ease the suction, then slowly pull it out to keep away from spilling blood. Then empty the blood into the rubbish, bathroom, or sink earlier than rinsing the cup completely with heat water and cleaning soap. Then you definately’re able to reinsert it.

After all, menstrual cups are simply considered one of some ways to handle your interval. And since each individual has barely completely different anatomy, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all resolution to menstrual cups or interval merchandise usually, Baldonieri stated.

“Durations are as distinctive because the individual experiencing them. The most suitable choice for interval administration is the choice that’s most comfy for you,” he stated. “If any of your menstrual merchandise trigger ache, I like to recommend a session along with your OB/GYN.”