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

Received: 11 September 2019     Accepted: 29 September 2019     Published: 23 October 2019
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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.

Published in Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Volume 7, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.jgo.20190706.12
Page(s) 161-165
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Menstrual Cup, FemmyCycle No-spill Design, Pads and Tampons

References
[1] Menstrual Cup Wikipedia has 50 updated references on menstrual cups.
[2] Shihata A, Brody S: An innovative, Reusable Menstrual Cup that enhances the Quality of Women’s life during Menstruation. British Journal of Medicine & Medical Research 4 (19): 3581, 2014.
[3] Penelope A Phillips-Howard, et al. Menstrual cup use, leakage, acceptability, safety, and availability: a systematic review and meta-analysis Lancet Public Health 2019; 4: e376–93.
[4] Kuhlmann AS; Peters B. Unmet Menstrual Hygiene Needs Among Low-Income Women: Obstetrics & Gynecology. 133 (2): 238–244, FEBRUARY 2019.
[5] Ten VTA. Menstrual hygiene: A neglected condition for the achievement of several millennium development goals. Europe External Policy Advisors. Oct 2007.
[6] Sommer M. Where the education system and women's bodies collide: The social and health impact of girls' experiences of menstruation and schooling in Tanzania. J Adolesc. 2010; 33: 521–529. [PubMed].
[7] Anna Maria van Eijk, Kayla F. Laserson, Elizabeth Nyothach, et al Research, Use of menstrual cups among school girls: longitudinal observations nested in a randomized controlled feasibility study in rural western Kenya, Reproductive Health volume 15, Article number: 139 (2018) Reproductive Health volume 15, Article number: 139 (2018).
[8] https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf12/K121857.pdf K121857
[9] Bright R. Dwyer D. Retained menstrual tampons: Hazards and epidemiology. International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care Meeting; Canmore, Alberta, Canada. 2003.
[10] Liswood R. Internal menstrual protection. Use of a safe and sanitary menstrual cup. Obstet Gynecol. 1959; 13: 539–543. [PubMed].
[11] Wysocki S. New options in menstrual protection. A guide for nurse practitioners. Adv Nurse Pract. 1997; 5: 51–54. [PubMed].
[12] Stewart K. Powell M. Greer R. An alternative to conventional sanitary protection: Would women use a menstrual cup? J Obstet Gynecol. 2009; 29: 49–52. [PubMed].
[13] Pena E. Menstrual protection. Advantages of the menstrual cup. Obstet Gynecol. 1962; 19: 684–714. [PubMed].
[14] Karnaky K. Internal menstrual protection with the rubber menstrual cup. Obstet Gynecol. 1962; 19: 688–691. [PubMed].
[15] Houppert K. The curse—Confronting the last unmentionable taboo: Menstruation. New York: Farrar Straus and Giraux; 1999.
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  • APA Style

    Alfred Adib Shihata, Steven Brody. (2019). Five Year Study of a Unique, Eco-friendly, Menstrual Cup, That Enhances the Quality of Women’s Lives During Menstruation. Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 7(6), 161-165. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jgo.20190706.12

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    ACS Style

    Alfred Adib Shihata; Steven Brody. Five Year Study of a Unique, Eco-friendly, Menstrual Cup, That Enhances the Quality of Women’s Lives During Menstruation. J. Gynecol. Obstet. 2019, 7(6), 161-165. doi: 10.11648/j.jgo.20190706.12

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    AMA Style

    Alfred Adib Shihata, Steven Brody. Five Year Study of a Unique, Eco-friendly, Menstrual Cup, That Enhances the Quality of Women’s Lives During Menstruation. J Gynecol Obstet. 2019;7(6):161-165. doi: 10.11648/j.jgo.20190706.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jgo.20190706.12,
      author = {Alfred Adib Shihata and Steven Brody},
      title = {Five Year Study of a Unique, Eco-friendly, Menstrual Cup, That Enhances the Quality of Women’s Lives During Menstruation},
      journal = {Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics},
      volume = {7},
      number = {6},
      pages = {161-165},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jgo.20190706.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jgo.20190706.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jgo.20190706.12},
      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.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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Author Information
  • Department of Medicine and Science, Scripps Research Institution, San Diego, USA

  • School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, USA

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