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Menstrual discs take been the talk of many a social media feed lately, but what exactly are they?

A menstrual disc is an insertable alternative period product that's supposed to provide 12 hours of protection, let you lot have mess-gratuitous sex on your menstruation, and fifty-fifty help minimize cramps. What a time to be alive.

Hither's what you demand to know about them before taking the plunge.

Menstrual discs and cups are very similar in that they're inserted into the vagina and collect blood.

To brand things more confusing, one of the first disposable menstrual cups on the market has since been rebranded as a menstrual disc, which totally makes more sense when yous pause down the features of each.

Cups expect like cups, while discs look like, well, discs.

A cup sits in your vagina beneath your cervix and extends into your culvert, depending on the type or brand you choose. A disc, on the other hand, fits back into your vaginal fornix, which is where your vaginal culvert meets your cervix.

Getting the disc in there comfortably may take a fiddling practice, just once information technology's in you'll know it because you lot won't feel it at all.

Hither's a step-by-footstep on how to insert it:

  1. First things offset, launder your easily — it's going in a fragile place later on all!
  2. Go into whichever position works for yous. This can exist sitting over the toilet, continuing with a leg up, or squatting.
  3. Clasp the sides of the disc together, making information technology the size of a tampon.
  4. Insert the pinched disc pointing downward and back into your vagina. You want it to sit at a vertical angle so it completely covers your neck.
  5. Make sure you push information technology by the pubic bone as far as it can go so the rim tucks in just above the bone.
  6. Congrats for getting it in! Bleed on!

Menstrual discs tend to be a tad messier than cups when information technology comes to removal. The central is to keep information technology as level as possible when you're pulling it out so you don't spill the contents.

To remove a menstrual disc:

  1. Wash your easily.
  2. Sit on the toilet — you don't want to be anywhere simply on the toilet in example your disc runneth over.
  3. Reach into your vagina with your index finger and hook it nether the rim, pulling it straight out.
  4. If y'all're having trouble reaching the disc, bear downwardly with your pelvic muscles like you're trying to poop. This volition "untuck" the rim from behind your pubic os.
  5. Empty the contents into the toilet, wrap in toilet newspaper if needed, and put information technology in the trash.

Menstrual discs tin can be worn for upwards to 12 hours, though y'all might need to change them more often depending on your menstruation.

Offset, what'due south considered a heavy flow? According to the Centers for Disease Command and Prevention (CDC), needing to change your pad or tampon after less than 2 hours or passing clots the size of a quarter or larger is considered heavy.

Menstrual discs can handle a heavy flow, simply you lot'll take to modify the discs more often throughout the twenty-four hour period.

Depending on the brand, menstrual discs hold the equivalent of around 5 regular or 3 super tampons, which is effectually 5 or half dozen teaspoons of fluid. For some perspective, the amount of blood lost during an entire monthly catamenia is 4 to 12 teaspoons.

Menstrual discs don't take up whatever real estate in your vaginal culvert, making it an ideal option for period sex. They sit at the base of your cervix just like a diaphragm, so as long as it's inserted properly, you and your partner shouldn't be able to experience it.

That said, a particularly deep or enthusiastic sex activity sesh could crusade information technology to shift. Based on user reviews of ii pop menstrual discs, some people practise report feeling the disc and have experienced leakage during sex.

The best way to know for sure how it'll hold upwardly is to take it for a drive. They do say practice makes perfect, correct?

They seem to reduce some period-related pain, but not cramps specifically.

Flex, the company behind one of the more pop menstrual discs, claims this happens because menstrual discs sit in the widest role of the vagina.

Tampons, on the other hand, sit lower in the vaginal canal, which is much narrower. When the tampon fills with blood and expands, according to this line of thinking, information technology can crusade cramping.

Seems logical plenty — except cramps are the result of contractions in the uterus. They don't really have anything to exercise with the vagina. Plus, the vaginal culvert is designed to expand plenty to birth a modest human.

Still, plenty of reviewers written report experiencing less pain when using menstrual discs instead of tampons. This may just mean that menstrual discs, which are super flexible, are but more comfortable to wear than stiff tampons.

This is where the menstrual cup wins in the loving cup versus disc contend. Nigh menstrual discs are dispensable and not meant to exist reused, then they aren't the most environmentally friendly option.

If y'all wait around, though, you can find some reusable menstrual cups that come up pretty darn close in pattern to menstrual discs (more on these subsequently).

At that place haven't been any serious risks associated specifically with discs, only menstrual cups have been associated with a risk of toxic shock syndrome (TSS) with a few cases reported.

TSS is a rare but serious condition caused past a bacterial infection that causes sudden symptoms, including fever, low blood pressure, and rash.

To reduce your risk of TSS, exercise good hygiene by washing your hands when inserting and removing discs, and always use information technology equally directed.

The likelihood of 1 getting "lost" up in there is no higher than with any other insertable menstrual product. Without a cord or loop to grab though, yous may need to bear down or try unlike positions to accomplish it.

You can find menstrual discs online. Some brands are even available in drug and department stores.

Here's a closer look at some the options and where to buy them.

Softdisc

Formerly chosen Instead Softcup, Softdisc is made of a medical-grade polymer and is hypoallergenic.

It is FDA-cleared and contains no:

  • BPA
  • phthalates
  • natural rubber latex
  • silicone

Softdisc is now owned by the Flex Company, who happens to make FLEX, another menstrual disc option.

Shop for SoftDisc menstrual discs online.

FLEX

FLEX Disc is made by the same company that now owns Softdisc. According to their company website, both products share a lot of the aforementioned benefits, but FLEX's rim warms to the body and forms for a improve fit.

As far as reviews, they're cervix-in-neck with Softdisc.

Shop for the FLEX Disc online.

Intima Ziggy Loving cup

While Ziggy Cup is marketed equally a menstrual cup, it's very like to a disc with a few key differences. For starters, it'due south reusable and therefore more affordable in the long run. Information technology's also fabricated of silicone rather than plastic.

Information technology's currently the only reusable menstrual cup that tin be used for sexual practice, since information technology'southward more than similar a disc in its shape and where it sits within the torso.

Based on reviews, it rates around the aforementioned as others, though users really like the double rim because it'due south sturdy and like shooting fish in a barrel to remove without spilling.

Shop for the Intima Ziggy Cup online.

From menstrual cups to period-proof undies, period products only seem to exist getting better and better, and menstrual discs are no exception. If yous're looking for something that feels like cipher, allows for penetrative sex, and handles heavy flows, consider giving menstrual discs a endeavor.

Adrienne Santos-Longhurst is a freelance writer and author who has written extensively on all things health and lifestyle for more a decade. When she's not holed-upwards in her writing shed researching an commodity or off interviewing health professionals, she tin can be plant frolicking around her beach boondocks with married man and dogs in tow or splashing nearly the lake trying to main the stand-up paddle board.