Prior to buying my cup, I contacted the MeLuna Company. I wanted to get a little more information on which cup I should decide on, and if it were okay for me to do a review on the MeLuna Shorty S Sport, for which I had a preference. The MeLuna Team, their customer service, is very friendly and helpful. They also mailed me a very practical link: http://www.me-luna.eu/epages/63898218.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/63898218/Categories/MeLuna_Informationsseiten/sizeguide/Groessenrechner
It's a MeLuna cup size calculator! It helps you find out which size of MeLuna cup is most suited to your needs and body build. I filled it out and they even contacted me via mail with further details. If you go to the following link: http://www.me-luna.eu/epages/63898218.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/63898218/Categories/MeLuna_Informationsseiten/sizeguide
you can find more information about every size of cup the MeLuna Company offers.
I was recommended a size small, since I'm petite, but, since there are quite a number of reviews on the small and nearly any on the Shorty let alone the Sport-firmness, I decided to go with my curiosity and try a Shorty Sport one, as this might be beneficial in helping you decide on whether to go for this type of cup. In this light, I would also like to do a review on one of the regular sizes of the MeLuna Sport-firmness cup, since, also on those you can't really find that much reviews.
This is a picture of the MeLuna cup I chose, the Shorty S blue-violet Sport, as pictured on the MeLuna website
About the MeLuna Shorty S Sport:
- It is made in Germany from TPE, short for Thermoplastic Elastomer. On the MeLuna website, you can find a lot of information on TPE, production, safety of TPE material and the colours used, and also why the MeLuna Company decided to use TPE instead for high grade medical silicone in the construction of their cups.
- It's the new and improved version of what used to be the MeLuna Mini
- It comes with a cute purple microfiber pouch to store your cup.
- It comes in a discrete envelope or cardboard box.
- It comes with a very instructive and clear instruction leaflet.
- You can discern the version of your MeLuna cup by looking at the inside of the ring, where is marked an S for small and is also written 'Sport' for the firmness of the cup.
- You can choose between 3 types of stem: ball, ring, or stem, or even not to have any stem at all (this version is called the basic and still has the amazing grip rings the stemmed-cups have. Mind you that the basic is only available on request with the Shorty!).
- You can choose between 3 types of firmness of the cup: soft, classic and sport, with sport being a bit more firm than most regular cups. Personally, I think you can compare it's firmness to that of the LadyCup, with the LadyCup maybe just that tiny tad softer. To hopefully give you a bit of an idea I included a picture I found on the internet demonstrating the 3 firmnesses MeLuna offers:
- The ring stem I got on my cup is solid and not stretchy (I love!)
- The grip rings on the base of the cup are really pronounced, but not too pronounced so they would hurt.
- Relatively soft rim that's not too prominent and nicely follows the shape of the cup.
- You can wear it for up to 12 hours!
- No risk of TSS!
- It's absolutely tiny!! It's known as 'the world's smallest cup'.
- The diameter of the cup is 38 mm which is the same as the diameter of the regular size S
- The height of the cup is 35 mm, the ring stem not included, which makes it 10 mm less heigh than the regular size S, which measures 45m, the ring stem not included.
- The Shorty S holds 15ml up to the rim and 8ml up to the air suction release holes, while the regular size S holds 23 ml up to the rim and 15 ml up to the air suction release holes.
- Since it is so small, its removal might require a little more practice!
- The MeLuna Shorty S is recommended for very young girls as well as women who never have had sexual intercourse, who are petite and who have a slender build, and who have a (very) light flow. If you've already had intercourse, but not have given birth vaginally, have a (very) light flow and are slender and petite you can also use the Shorty.
- The MeLuna Shorty S is also especially suited for women whose vagina is very short, women who have a (very) low cervix, or women who have a uterine prolapse.
My opinion:
Wow, I was not sure what to expect from the MeLuna Shorty S, but I really like it! The way I'm putting it, makes it look like I had my doubts on this little cup itself prior to purchasing and trying it out, but nothing is less true! I sure did have my doubts, but this has everything to do with my physique and not with the MeLuna Shorty S! I really am really slender and petite so that was not why I was a tad concerned. The reason I was a bit unsure if I had made a good decision on buying this cup, is due to the fact that I believe that I have a fairly high cervix. I can easily fit the LoveUrBody cup in size M without even being bothered by its stem although I'm petite (1m56 or 5 feet 2'') . I also was not entirely sure on whether my pelvic floor muscles were truly as strong as I believed them to be and thus if the Sport version might not be too firm after all. Nevertheless, due to the lack on reviews on this kind of cup and my curiosity whether such a small cup would fit someone with a high cervix (and what it would be like to get it out!), which is really typical about me : ), I decided to do give it a go.
Oh boy, I'm so glad I tried it! I'm really enthusiastic about it. I would therefore also highly recommend it to anyone who would like to try it!
For a start, and this might seem really superficial, it's really cute! It's just so small and tiny it's really adorable. Second, I of course like it too because it's such a decent cup!
Next to that it's so cute, a big plus on the smallness of the Shorty S for me is that it gives me the opportunity to measure just how light my flow really is, something I've always pondered upon. I've got the feeling that this might be easier to do with a smaller cup because you can measure it more accurately than with a big cup. With a really small cup, you might have to empty it more and if that's the case you know for sure how much blood you lost in a certain amount of time, while with a bigger cup that you only have to empty once in a while, you can only guess.
Inserting the Shorty for the first time, I was wondering if it would be easier to insert than a larger cup. So I was glad to find out, that, on the contrary to what I heard about the Mini (old version of the Shorty) and therefore was afraid of, The MeLuna Shorty S is easily foldable! I was really excited when I succeeded in folding it in the 7-fold, which is my favourite, the first time I tried!
The Shorty S being a tiny cup, I had to re-adjust my insertion style a bit though. You have to keep onto it long enough while inserting it, and maybe even use your middle finger to guide it up, otherwise it will unfold too early and will not sit in the correct spot and feel a bit uncomfortable. There is one other thing about the insertion of the Shorty. It's not as smooth as the insertion of any of the other cups that I own (even the larger ones), and I believe this might have to do with that the Shorty is made of TPE, while all of my other cups are made from high-grade medical silicone. In my opinion, the TPE of the Shorty gives a little more friction when inserting the cup than a cup made from silicone.
If you then succeeded in inserting the Shorty in the correct way, you can however not feel that it's there! The more you try it, the easier it will become! Although the insertion of the Shorty may require a bit of trial and error, it becomes easier the more you try it and although it sometimes did not exactly go as I wanted, I nevertheless never hurt myself trying!
Now, if you insert a cup, at some point, it has to come out again obviously. : )
So, here a bit on the removal of the Shorty. As I said, I believe I have a high cervix, which made me a bit worried the Shorty might just simply 'disappear'. What if I could not get hold of it again or if I might not get it out? As soon as I had inserted it, I therefore reached for it. I had to know if I could still feel it and to try to get it out before leaving it in for the day. All I could feel was the very under part of the ring stem. I could however not properly grab the ring stem to get it out. I was not worried though. I knew that if I pushed my pelvic floor muscle, pfm, a bit, my cup should come down a bit. I tried and it did! So if you have a high cervix and you want to try this cup, that's what you have to do. Push it down with your pfm until you can reach for it. Mind you to not relax your pfm until you've gotten hold of the stem of the cup or it's base to walk it further down, which was easy enough. Getting the Shorty Sport out, on the other hand, was a little more tricky since it is so firm. The best you can do in my opinion is to walk it down to the opening of your vagina. Then, you get hold of the base of the cup with one hand and then squish the bottom of the base with the other. Try to hold it squished in with that one hand and then, with your other hand, get hold of the more upper part of the cup and try to hold on to it, so that it cannot pop open again, while you slowly walk it further down. That way, it should not hurt when you pull your cup out.
Even though removal of the Shorty Sport had a bit of a learning curve to it, also in this case, I nevertheless never hurt myself trying! I also loved the fact that due to me not getting the Shorty out like a breeze at first instance, it learned me a lot on my female anatomy, which as an extra bonus made me feel more empowered as a woman.
A crucial part of the removal of a cup, is its stem, unless you have a very low cervix or don't like stems of course : ).
My MeLuna Shorty S Sport has a ring as its stem. I was really excited to try it out, since only one of the other cups I own, the LoveUrBody cup, has a different than the regular type of long stem. At first, I did not know what to expect: would it be easier to grab, would it hurt since it is so wide and sturdy, would it not be too short? It was when I got to using my cup more and more that I rapidly grew fond of this type of stem. It is wider than the normal type of stem, but not so wide that it hurts. You may want to make sure though that the wide side of the ring is going parallel with your tummy once it's inside of you, otherwise it might poke you. The ring is also sturdy so it feels really secure when you grab it. Removing the cup with this ring stem, you've got the feeling that you've got a good grip on the cup and will have an easy time getting it out.
Something with the Shorty I was apprehensive about, were its grip rings. The grip rings of MeLuna cups are relatively well pronounced and I was a tad worried that they might hurt me when I would insert or remove my cup, or that I would be able to sense them while wearing it. I was also not sure on whether grip rings really are necessary and whether they actually help with the removal of a cup, since the ones on my other cups are or absent or I've never been able to use them for this purpose. I found out while using the Shorty, that, in contrast to the other cups I've already tried, the MeLuna grip rings indeed are practical.
Something I'm really elated about is the Sport firmness I chose for my Shorty. I'm so glad that I followed my gut feeling and went for this type of firmness. I was really looking for a cup that was not too soft. I have tried the small Si-Bell cup when I just started out on cups because it was said to be the ideal beginners cup for it is so soft, but, for me it was not that perfect a match as it is for quite a lot of women. Up to this point, the small Si-Bell cup is the only cup that ever hurt me and I've tried 5 others now in different sizes. I think that because the small Si-Bell cup is so soft and because of its shape, my pelvic floor muscles might have squished it and moved it around so that it hurt me by constantly being in motion. (A review on the small (and large!) Si-Bell cup will follow, so you can read how and where exactly it did hurt.)
Since the MeLuna Company also sent me a few demonstration cups, these are real cups but are unusable since they have holes punched through them, I got to see what the Classic firmness was like as well and could compare it to the firmness of the Sport. This comparison made me even more sure of the fact that I made the right choice. The Classic is quite softer than the Sport, maybe you could compare it to the softness of the Si-Bell cup, and, although a lot of other women like it, I, however, felt more for the firmness of the LadyCup and was glad to find out that the Sport lived up to this liking.
Picture time!
This is the link to the MeLuna website:
http://www.me-luna.eu/
It is available in German as well as in English. To switch languages, you have to click on the little flags on the upper right hand side of the webpage.
To buy a cup:
http://www.me-luna.eu/epages/63898218.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/63898218/Categories/MeLuna_Produkte/Monatshygiene/MeLuna_menstrual_cups
DISCOUNT CODE!!!!
HH15K84VADEXVZAI
If you use the this code, you get €1 off of the MeLuna cup of your choice on the MeLuna website! It is valid until 31.12.2015. Not valid for discounted offers. Discount only valid for one MeLuna cup, not for other products.
Picture from the MeLuna website of the 2 MeLuna cups I would still love to try: