Okay, its not for the faint of heart. It does involve being intimately involved with your menstrual blood. Its a bit of a challenge if you are going out and have to use a public bathroom. Its a bit of a challenge during heavy flow times as it needs emptying often. However, you can have sex with it in! This was big for me (ahum... And others
).
Gee, I must have the world's smallest vagina... I have the "non-mom" Diva cup, and it actually sticks out a little bit, even when it's inserted all the way. There is *no way* I could have sex with it in...
As for emptying it in public, I always secretly hope to get "caught" (me, an exhibitionist?? you lie!) so that I can brag about how awesome it is and try to get everyone to switch. If nothing else, the sheer cost savings should be enough for anyone... it costs like 1 year supply of disposables and you NEVER have to replace it (well, I've never had ro replace MINE)
I also used to have the Keeper, i.e. the natural gum tree rubber one you spoke of, and it was great too, but I didn't like how you couldn't sterilize it (rubber gets sticky if you heat it up too hot).. that's what I like best about the silicone Diva Cup...
I have come across several vaginas that I don't like the smell of. One of which I tasted. It tasted fine, but the smell was not attractive to me.
I haven't smelled a lot of other vaginas, but I really like the smell of my own... but it tastes sorta bitter, so adunno what's up with that... never had any complaints from other people going down there, but I'm not sure anyone would say anything if there was a problem...
About a million years ago my then wife and I made handmade pads on my sewing machine.
I remember doing that at the campus Womyn's Centre, it was so much fun! We used old pyjamas, the flannel is really absorbant and natural fibre... We made ours with a little pocket into which you could insert various absorbancies of liners, so you didn't have to double them up. We made them with button-on wings. I still have them too!
And I'd use a menstrual cup if I bled enough for it to make a difference, which I don't, due to my IUD.
I've had to go on the pill continuously because I had really heavy painful periods. On my heavy days, I would be emptying the Diva cup about every 2 hours. The thing holds 1 oz, and it would be overflowing. The literature I found said that a normal period is 2-3 oz over the entire cycle, and I was losing about 3 times that PER DAY on my heavy days, which lasted about 4 days. So roughly 10x the average loss over the entire cycle... yikes!
After some initial spotting for the first few months, I've been period-free for nearly 3 years. My mean doctor made me take a couple breaks, which led to both cramping and intermittent spotting over the next couple months. One female doctor wrote an article saying she hadn't had a period since the 70's, and has seen no adverse side-effects in any of her patients. Furthermore, the average woman now has about 20x the number of periods than our ancestors did, because they used to be either pregnant or nursing all the time, plus we start younger and finish older. Finally, I read that the "period" you get when you're on the pill is more of a withdrawal effect from the hormones than a true period... so *shrug* that's my justification, aside from not being in pain all the time and spending have the day in the bathroom...