1. Folds. I found pictures on this community of the various folds. The c-fold that comes with the package is so not comfortable. I use the punch down fold.
2. Know your cervix. Someone here made the point that the cervix should be in or at least above the cup. I was having ridiculous leakage, so I decided to learn how to find my cervix. Now, I check it's position periodically during my cycle, and "aim" for that with the cup when I insert it. I've also learned to feel around the cup to make sure my cervix isn't sticking out. I couldn't do this at first though. This helped me with positioning and took care of the major leakage problems.
3. Itchiness/Burning. I was getting an itchy/burny feeling around the entrance to my vagina, a few days into my period. It was not yeast, and I finally ruled out that it wasn't irritation from insertion. It didn't matter how diligently I washed my hands and cup, or what soap I used. I had this problem even on the month I went without the cup (I had an IUD inserted that month and since the first IUD I had expelled on it's own, I didn't want to take any chances of aggravating it the first month.) The non-cup month I still had my hand up there checking for the IUD strings every other day (I was paranoid about it expelling again), and that seemed to be enough to cause the itchiness. I finally decided it must be an imbalance of bacteria and I stumbled on a solution. I had a squeeze bottle of water, to which I added a 5-10 drops of a concoction I had on hand. The concotion is called Advantage liquid concentrate from Wisdom of the Ages. The ingredients are Distilled Water, Citrus Seed Extract (Grape seed I believe), green tea, and jasmine tea. It is supposed to have antibacterial/antifungal properties. I was using the mixture in the bottle to rinse my cup before reinserting it, but one night I was so uncomfortable I decided to give myself a little rinse with the bottle. I woke up the next morning and the itchiness was GONE. I was ecstatic. Now, I rinse the cup and myself with the bottle whenever I empty the cup at home and I have no more discomfort. I've also found that the rinsing after inserting the cup helps remove any residual blood around the cup without having to use lots of over-drying toilet paper. This helps reduce spotting.
I'm now a happy convert to the cup, though I still have trouble with my lunette beginning to leak any time the contents reach the lowest measuring line. I'm thinking the angle at which the cup sits causes the contents to spill over when it reaches a certain fullness. Any suggestions that might get me a little longer between emptying on heavy flow days? When I remove the cup, it sure sounds like it's "sealed", but that doesn't seem to stop the spillage. Also, my activities don't seem to have any effect one way or the other, like if I'm lying down or really active.
I'm tempted to try the Lady Cup (larger size), thinking the softer material might be easier inserting and removing. And since I can't seem to actually use the full capacity of the lunette, I wouldn't really be giving that up. Anyone tried both the Lunette and the Lady Cup? Any comments one way or the other?
Good luck to new cup converts and thanks in advance for any suggestions.