What stops you from switching to "green" or reusable menstrual products?

Same here. I tried the disposable cups and I could not get the hang of them and I had some leaks too. I tried using them for probably 3 cycles and then figured it just wasn't going to work for me so Now I'm back to using tampons.

I know some ppeople swear by them, but they were just frustrating for me.

Disposable cups are inserted and removed differently from reusable ones, and I typically hear that they're more difficult to get the hang of, so I'm not sure they're a good basis for comparison.

I've heard this too, but I was a lot more willing to spend $5 on a box of disposable cups than I was to spend $20 - $40 for a reusable cup when I wasn't sure if either was going to work for me at all.

Has anyone here used both? I'd love it if someone could share a good comparison story.

I think someone on here has, but for the life of me can't remember who.

There's this handy blog I found when researching cups, though. The author tests and reviews different kinds of cups, and I think there's one post about disposables, so have a look.

I'll do that. Thanks!

Also, I hear Livejournal has a menstrual cup community. If you're on there you could ask around and see if anyone's tried both (I'm sure someone has).

Same here. I my period doesn't last very long anyways. So I'd rather just use tampons.

I've used the Diva Cup and Insteads (disposable cups). With both I had major leakage, so I don't use them anymore. FWIW, I preferred the Insteads.

Thanks for the feedback! That's what I'm afraid of with the Diva Cup (or another brand like it). I'm still considering trying one, though.

Live Journal has an amazing menstrual cup community. It can be found HERE. Be aware that it is a gender neutral comm (trans* men and other non-female identified folks still have periods and use menstrual products) and they ask you to please use gender neutral language when addressing the comm (ie: don't start posts with "Hey ladies!") to avoid alienating the non-female identified members, which I applaud them for. Great group of folks over there with TONS of info and advice and experience to share.

I saw your other post about this community, and I'm glad to see you posted a link. I'll definitely be poking around to see what they have to say. Thanks!

There's a couple of ways of dealing with this, if you ever decide you want to try one. You could just time your emptying routine to coincide with when you leave for work or go back home. Cups can be left in for a maximum of twelve hours (flow dependent), so if you don't work that long you wouldn't even have to worry about it. On the other hand, if your work day is that long, or your flow is heavy enough to warrant more frequent emptying, you could either take a damp paper towel with you into the stall or keep a water bottle handy to rinse the cup out while you're in there.

I worried about this a little bit too before getting my cup, but it turned out to be pretty easy to work around for me. I keep a peri bottle in my purse and bring that along into the bathroom during my break on heavy days, then just leave it in until I get home on lighter days.