My first attempt at inserting it went far, FAR better than my last try a couple years ago with the large DivaCup. I find a bit of lube indispensable. I started off with the basic C-fold, but I find it so darn difficult to hold onto it while inserting it, it's just impossible. On one attempt, it popped out of my hand and flew a foot! (BF walked into the bedroom just in time to see this and cracked up laughing.) The punch-down fold was a big success-- much easier to get the leading edge in quickly, so that when I lose my grip and it starts unfolding, the rim is inside and it unfolds and just kind of sucks its way up in. And I'm so grateful to everyone for all the helpful photos and videos of folds and insertion techniques.
Didn't have too much trouble getting it to open, at least I think it's open. The "stirring" and "spinning" techniques I've read so much about don't seem to work for me-- I can't turn the thing inside me at all-- but it seems to gradually open itself. I rechecked a couple of times, and it felt round on the second or third check. My flow comes on very gradually, so it's still just spotting right now, but when I remove it, the little bit of blood that's there seems be all on the inside of the cup, so I guess it's working.
One concern I have is that I FEEL it a lot when I'm wearing it. Walking is... odd, and sitting can be difficult. Some of this is the stem, but I think it's the body of the cup as well. I feel almost like I'm walking around with a ben wa ball inside me. My first thought is that it's riding too low, but I'm fairly sure it's up about as high as it's going, because it sucks itself upward pretty aggressively as it unfolds, and I shoved it a little and did a few kegels to try to get it up a little more, but I still can feel the knobby bumps just inside my vagina, and it's all right for a few minutes, but I fear that over the course of a day I'm going to develop a lot of irritation. And the least little "pushing" with my muscles-- say, if I cough-- sends it pushing downward. I feel almost like I'm having to "hold" it in place.
Removing it was also not too bad, and I'm so relieved after reading some of the horror stories here about girls struggling with it for hours on end. It was a struggle, and wore me out a bit, but only took 5 minutes of work. I think watching Melissa's insertion/removal video a few times and reading all the posts here has been a huge help. Breaking the suction is a bit difficult, and I find that bearing down hard and continuously is necessary as I pull it out. I didn't do too well with semi-folding it to remove it, and it came out more or less fully open, but fortunately, with the soft, small LadyCup this was only moderately uncomfortable. I think the most uncomfortable part is all the digging around I have to do inside me with my fingers and thumb!
I've only had it a day and used it twice, now, but it's already obvious I'll have to trim the stem. At times it's really painful when it pokes, me, especially sitting. I just now cut off 1mm (up to the first ridge of bumps), and used my tiny sewing scissors to bevel the edges a bit, and then took the rough side of an emery board to it. Filing it like this makes the plastic whitish instead of clear, but I'll take that over sharp/hard edges any day.
Anyway, this was kind of a spew, but I hope it's helpful to someone, and I would like to hear your opinions and experiences on feeling it inside you when you're wearing it.
