aggravatedI have been using the Diva Cup for several months now, and this is the first time I have had any problems with really ranky smell that won't go away on my cup. I have previously had a kind of "period smell" of blood and cervical fluid on my cup, but it would always go away as soon as I cleaned my cup with Diva Wash or alcohol. This time, soaking it in alcohol didn't work, and neither did washing it with anti-bacterial soap (and rinsing it very well - I know the danger of anti-bacterials on the vagina, but I have been at my wit's end trying to get rid of the smell). Right now I'm not wearing it - I soaked it in rubbing alcohol while I showered, then took it out to let it air out. It's been about a half an hour, and it still smells of the ranky smell, with a rubbing alcohol overlay. >_<
Normally, I would just let it wait until my next period. However, I think part of the problem may be that my period is running late? I have been wearing it over a week off of my period because I expected my period to start last week and it hasn't yet. My luck and class schedule in the past has almost always guaranteed that it would start in the middle of a two-hour lecture class, so I usually start wearing my cup the morning that I expect my period to start.
Now, however, I have a late period that could theoretically start at any moment and a ranky smelling Diva Cup. >_< Also, my fingers smell ranky when I take it out to clean it (which I do several times a day, even though my period hasn't started) but I can't tell if it's from me specifically or if it's from the cup making me smell, which in turn would make my fingers smell. (The smell doesn't linger on my hands after washing them, for what it's worth. Regular soap and water does the trick for my hands. It just doesn't seem to do anything for the Diva Cup.)
I looked through the memories and I found a lot of postings about things that haven't worked thus far for me (soap and hot water, alcohol) and other solutions that take a week to a month (airing it out, vinegar and letting it air out, etc). I will probably try the stuffing it with newspaper method tonight with hopes the smell will be gone by morning.
Is there anything else someone can suggest for a "quick fix" in case my period starts overnight?
If it makes any difference with the smell, I've been under a lot of stress lately (a lot of stress) which is what I suspect is throwing off my period. Could this also be causing the smell? One of the posts mentioned pH imbalances due to stress - how exactly does that happen?
ETA: Woke up with monster cramps at 4 AM, and sure enough, the Red Menace had arrived. It was exactly a week late like this last month, too - I'm thinking that I should start looking into what the problem might be. :/ At any rate, no other menstrual products in the house, and I wasn't about to wake up the entire house at 4 AM to drive a half an hour to get them, so I'm using my cup.
I didn't have any peroxide in the house last night, so I just left it to air out under a strong lamp (one of the previous posts had mentioned strong sunlight). The outside of the cup smelled less ranky when I had to put it in - the smell was barely there, and the inside still smelled, so the light may have been doing the trick. I'll probably pick up baking soda and peroxide today so that I can try both of them with my next couple showers. I just got up to empty my cup and the smell was still lingering despite being my first empty-out and rinse; however, there didn't seem to be additional smell because of the blood, and it was no worse than last night, possibly slightly better. I guess I'll have to keep an eye on it.