Five Year Study of a Unique, Eco-friendly, Menstrual Cup, That Enhances the Quality of Women’s Lives During Menstruation

Abstract

Menstrual cups are gaining more popularity among women, [1]. who prefer cups over pads and tampons. The innovative FemmyCycle (Figure 2) has several advantages over traditional menstrual cups, which has led to its increased popularity [2]. The objective of this study is to mitigate and correct the possible or potential side effects caused by traditional menstrual cups (Figure 3). The most common side effect among traditional cups is leakage. Despite the fact that 1.9 billion women globally are of menstruating age—spending on average 65 days a year dealing with menstrual blood flow, few good quality studies exist that compare sanitary products, says senior author Penelope Phillips-Howard, a public health epidemiologist from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK. [3]. We focused our study on all causes of leakage and other side effects caused by traditional menstrual cups. Methods of corrective and preventive actions included; the no-spill design, (Figure 4 & Figure 5), use of a removal ring instead of a rigid stem, the use of a flask shaped body rather than the conical shape of traditional menstrual cups, (Figure 2 & Figure 3), the elimination of suction holes and the need to manually open the cup. We analyzed 834 independent reviews by women who have had prior experience with traditional menstrual cups to obtain objective results. The implementation of these design changes and enhancing the written and video instructions produced measurable, objective, positive results in favor of the FemmyCycle. We analyzed all these reviews for FemmyCycle to measure the effects on leakage and other side effects. We selected the reviewers who volunteered to compare the FemmyCycle with their experience with traditional cone shaped menstrual cups. There were many reasons why women preferred FemmyCycle, but the most common by far was the prevention of leakage followed by the ease of insertion, ease of removal and comfort when inserted. The implementation of the design changes from a conical shaped cup with a removal stem to a flask shape cup with a removal ring, in addition to the added no-spill feature and enhanced instructional material, improved the acceptability of the FemmyCycle.