So, I was in the bathroom bathing and this idea just popped out to me from nowhere. How well does a pad hold up to a cup's capacity? I only saw youtube videos on people testing it on tampons vs cups with coloured water, but blood is much thicker than water so I didn't think that that experiment was very fair. Also, in one capacity comparison video, a person filled a cup with water, then proceed to pour the water over a tampon till it leaks and then squeeze the tampon dry(if you are interested, cup won). IMHO, I did not think it was a fair test either. So I took a pad, removed my full Small Diva cup from my vagina and I decided to do my own test.
My Diva cup was filled exactly at the 15ml mark(with menstrual blood). Drop by drop, I poured it's content over a Whisper brand overnight (heavy flow) pad. The first try I poured a little too much and the blood was not absorbed immediately as I expected it to. It collected over the pad in fluid mode and was spilling over the sides. I waited for about 20 seconds for the absorbing process to happen with the pad but progress was so slow I decided to give it some manual aid. I rubbed the sides of the pad together and the blood slowly seeped in. I made sure I covered all parts of the pads and not just the center, front or back. I have to say I was shocked by how poorly the pad was absorbing the blood. Maybe that's why last time when I was still using a pad, whenever I get a relatively bigger gush of blood, I can actually feel it flowing down my butt crack. The pad's absorbing speed just cannot match up to the flow.
Anyway, I proceeded with the pouring and helping the pad absorb the blood till the Diva Cup was half empty. At this point, I thought maybe I should turn the pad over to see how well it's holding up at the back since the front of it was pretty soaked already. AND GUESS WHAT. This was when I realised, it's not just the front that's completely soaked with blood, THE WHOLE PAD WAS FULL. The back cotton was COMPLETELY DRENCHED and there was blood sitting at the edges which could not be absorbed by the pad anymore.
And my Diva cup was still half full.
Take that, pads! I would totally recommend you guys to try this experiment out too because it really makes you appreciate your cups so much more.