I found the insertion to be very easy. It remained in place, I had sex with it in place and he didn't feel it, nor did it become dislodged, they were very comfortable for me to use. I didn't even feel them in there.
However, when it came time to remove it...I thought for sure the very first time I had to take it out I was going to end up in the emergency room. I could feel the rim up there, but couldn't hook my finger under it at all. I started to panic a little after a good 5 minutes of trying to reach it (oh god oh god oh god oh god!!!!) but then I remembered seeing on the Instead website video someone talking about "bearing down" while they were removing it. So, I tried that. I could feel it move some, so I bore down more. I finally managed to hook my finger under it and tugged a little. It "popped" out of place, and as soon as that happened, my hands were absolutely covered in blood. I got the thing out and immediately realized my next problem. How do I get rid of this thing with blood covered hands, since I wasn't smart enough to grab the toilet paper ahead of time to wrap around it to throw in the garbage? I eventually worked everything out (thank god I was in my own house!) and put the next one in.
I can now say after the end of the cycle... Insteads, at least for me, are not the way to go during my heaviest flow. The first couple of days I was in my own house when I ran into these issues with blood soaked hands and removing issues the first couple of tries. I found that in order to remove them I have to really bear down, almost as if I was giving birth. It's kind of hard to explain, but also while bearing down I had to sort of tilt my pelvis forward a bit, which made everything so much easier. By the third day I was not having removal issues at all, even though I never did quite figure out how to avoid a mess. I like to ride motorcycles and am not always near a bathroom to clean myself up as good as I would with a sink around. Which is one of the reasons I got turned on to menstrual cups in the first place. I have always hated being restricted to kind of sticking around places in case I felt the familiar "oh shit I have to change this pad/tampon NOW!!!" But with the Insteads being as messy as they are (or I should say as messy as I am with them)...there probably isn't much difference other than the time between changes. Disposing of the Insteads is a definite problem, I have heard of some rinsing them out and reusing, but honestly I am not all that keen on reusing something that is going to be right on my cervix, and they are not easy at all to "dump out", unless all over my hands in the removing process counts. Then trying to find something to wrap them in and so forth...I can just see major effin pain in the ass activity while I am out on the road. It's a pain at home. And there is still an extra one I have to carry around since I don't reuse them.
However, I have not had any problems with them leaking. After a couple of days, I was inserting them like a pro, and I figured out how to get my body to help take them out. They didn't shift around that I could tell and I didn't feel them in there. I have had sex a few times with them in place, and he didn't feel it in there, either. I did tell him that I was trying Insteads out, he at first was really nervous about "poking around" in there cuz he thought it would hurt me, but after the initial apprehension everything was a go.
In the end, I found the Insteads to be a major improvement over tampons and especially pads, but aren't exactly the perfect solution, either. I can leave them in longer than I was ever comfortable leaving a tampon in. They are especially useful for having sex during that time of the month if I, he, or we don't feel like dealing with bloody sex. I am quite messy with them, however and disposing of them is a problem, either trying to find something to wrap them up in without showing off the blood to the rest of the house(or whomever) and there is still another one to carry around if I am going to be away for a while. Insteads I bought right off of the shelf at Walgreens. The closest store that sells Diva Cups is 60 miles away at a health food store.
I just ordered a Diva Cup this morning. I plan on continuing to use the Instead cups when I want to have the "no mess" sex (during the sex, that is). Otherwise, the Insteads I think aren't for me for exclusive use.