The Cora Menstrual Cup Eliminated My Monthly Period Stress. It Also Helped Me Save More Than $500 (So Far).
Sarah Gannett is a writer covering health, fitness, baby, and kid gear.
My life as a menstrual cup devotee started as a crunchy-granola, hiking cliché, but I quickly realized how convenient a cup is both on and off the trail.
I was heading out on a long wilderness hiking trip, where the nearest pack of tampons on a store shelf would be 80 miles away. I needed something that would never run out, that I could wash, and that wouldn’t stuff the trash bag I had to carry back out of the mountains.
Enter the classic DivaCup.
After a couple of days figuring out how to get the DivaCup positioned comfortably, I realized that what made my cup great in the outdoors also translated to my regular, non-hiking life—I never worried about running out of tampons or pads, and I no longer had to wake up in the middle of the night to change them on my heaviest days. Ten years (and another menstrual cup) later, I’ve also saved roughly $540.
Last year I replaced my nine-year-old DivaCup with Cora’s The Easy-Does-It Cup, Wirecutter’s top pick in our guide to menstrual cups. It was a revelation: With its flexible material and easy-to-grasp shape, my Cora cup is the menstrual cup I wish I’d had a decade ago when I first fiddled with the DivaCup.
Our pick
This menstrual cup folds nicely, and its slightly irregular shape makes pinching and removing easier for seasoned and new users alike.
Of course, every person is different, and a menstrual cup may not be for you for a number of reasons. No two vaginas are the same, and getting the right fit can take some trial and error.
Menstrual cups let me be lazy about my period
Having just one menstrual product to account for has eliminated my ambient period stress. The part of my brain that was always monitoring how many tampons or pads I had on hand, which absorbency I should use, and whether I needed to set brutal 3 a.m. alarms to change my tampon on particularly heavy nights has been set free.
As someone with a heavy flow, I’ve found that a menstrual cup has significantly improved my period experience. The smaller Cora cup size—intended for people who haven’t given birth vaginally—still holds more than most ultra tampons. On the heaviest days, I do sometimes reach for my original DivaCup, which holds about twice as much as an ultra tampon.
Whether I’m hiking or just taking out my bathroom trash, I appreciate not having to deal with the volume of used products and packaging. While that constitutes a minuscule part of one’s total personal waste, some people may appreciate a cup from a sustainability perspective as well.
Another consideration, although it was not something I thought about when switching from tampons and pads to a cup: Wirecutter’s small study of various period and incontinence products found that menstrual cups and discs had the lowest amounts of fluorine—a marker for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Exposure to PFAS over time has been linked to various health risks, including liver disruption and cancer. If you want to reduce your overall exposure to PFAS, you may consider using medical-grade silicone menstrual cups instead of period underwear, tampons, or pads.
The Cora cup is particularly easy to insert and remove
The Easy-Does-It Cup is remarkably user friendly. Though getting used to any new period product still involves a bit of a learning curve, the Easy-Does-It Cup has a nifty indent to help you fold it for insertion. It’s also easier to remove than other cups, thanks to its kidney-shaped base surrounded by grippy rings.
Its flexible material is similar to that of many other newer-generation menstrual cups, making it more comfortable to wear than my slightly stiffer, decade-old DivaCup. The Easy-Does-It Cup is also shorter and a bit smaller, so it should be comfortable for a wider range of bodies than the relatively long DivaCup (another great cup that Wirecutter recommends for people with a high cervix). This versatility makes the Cora cup a good starting point if you’re new to menstrual cups.
I appreciate the thought behind the Easy-Does-It Cup’s long stem—which should make it even simpler for beginners to remove—but I found it a bit uncomfortable. After trimming it down, I’ve had no complaints.
Menstrual cups have a learning curve—and some drawbacks
Menstrual cups are pricey, especially for things that may require some trial and error to find the right fit. Even so, a reusable cup can start saving you money over just three cycles. As with tampons, pads, and period underwear, you can use a health-care flexible spending account (FSA) or health savings account (HSA) funds to buy menstrual cups.
You will get blood on your hands when inserting, removing, and emptying a menstrual cup—at least at first. Understandably, this might bother some people, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how not-grossed-out I am by my menstrual cup. Getting to see how my flow changes over a cycle has also been empowering, both in my becoming familiar with how my body works and in my being able to quantify my flow to doctors.
Cleaning a menstrual cup is pretty straightforward. During your cycle, you can rinse your menstrual cup with water or wash it with mild soap before reinserting it. Sterilizing your cup between cycles is a good idea, though I admit that I don’t always do this and haven’t had any issues. Check your cup’s instruction manual for the best way to sterilize it; many people, myself included, boil theirs. Store your menstrual cup in a breathable container, such as the fabric pouch included with most models: It won’t dry fully and could get stinky if you seal it in an airtight container such as a plastic bag.
While a one-and-done period product is appealing, having a backup option can be nice if you misplace the cup or want to have spare tampons on hand for guests. After getting caught without my menstrual cup when my period started, I bought a box of tampons to stash them in various bags. Though menstrual cups don’t leak more than any other period products, some people like to use a liner, period underwear, or a reusable pad as a backup—especially when they’re first getting the hang of things.
This article was edited by Rachelle Bergstein and Tracy Vence.
