Menstrual Cup Comparison Chart

The Period Nirvana menstrual cup comparison chart is a helpful tool for experienced menstrual cup users, but can be used by new users as well. However, if you are brand new to cups a good place to start is by taking our menstrual cup quiz. Use the chart to look for cups based on helpful features like length, firmness, and use filters to find cups that are good for a high or low cervix, or that are good for a heavy period.

Our new menstrual cup chart is mobile-first so only a few columns will show on a small screen. Click the “Show all Columns” button and scroll to the right for more measurements and firmness ratings. On a phone this is best viewed by turning the phone sideways if you want to see all of the columns easily. The chart is viewed best on a laptop screen. You can expand the number of menstrual cups on the chart if you toggle off the filter for “Sold by PN” to include all listed brands of menstrual discs. You can hide any products that are no longer being sold by selecting the filter to “hide discontinued.”

Menstrual cups with firmness ratings on the chart are scored by Kim of Period Nirvana. Every cup is squeezed by hand and compared side by side to place it on the scale. A score of 1 is the softest; 5 is the firmest. This isn’t scientific — it’s subjective. But there’s no other way to rate a cup or disc’s firmness against a body or hand. Silicone does have a shore score: the durometer firmness used to manufacture it. Each product’s thickness and shape vary, though, so that shore score isn’t a reliable measure of how firm it feels in the body. For menstrual cups, this firmness rating refers to the cup’s top rim.

A menstrual disc and menstrual cup both collect menstrual fluid in the body from below the cervix, but a disc sits higher than a cup in the vaginal fornix and is suction-free with a flat fit. Menstrual cups sit lower in the vaginal canal and create a suction and seal to be leak-free. Discs hold more than most menstrual cups, and can be worn during penetrative intercouse. Menstrual discs are safer to wear with an IUD than menstrual cups. Cups are less messy to remove than discs and are less involved to insert/remove than a disc.

You can determine by measuring your cervix height – then use the chart’s filters and look for cups that are best for a high or low cervix. If your cervix height is low you will need a menstrual cup that is short enough to fit comfortably. Be precise in your cervix height measurement, select a cup by it’s total length or body length that is equal to or shorter than your cervix height measurement. If your cervix height is high select a cup that is long in the body and/or stem length so it’s easy to reach. Stems can usually be trimmed.

Use our chart’s filter section and select the “heavy flow” box, which will display only cups with the highest capacity. Or, sort from high to low on the chart on the capacity column and see exactly how much the mesntrual cupss hold.

Yes – you can pee and poop with a menstrual cup inserted. There is no need to remove it to use the restroom. No, you cannot have sex with a menstrual cup in since it sits low in the vaginal canal.

Companies that hold BCorp certification manufacture the menstrual cupss marked BCorp on the chart. BCorp (short for Certified B Corporation) is a for-profit company that meets high standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability. Many of the brands carried and sold by Period Nirvana have this certification.

Yes, Period Nirvana has a newly updated mobile friendly and sortable, filterable menstrual disc chart with additional columns tailored just for disc. Columns include capacity, diameter, firmness, removal aid, shape, and material. Or you can expand the filter menu on this chart and switch to the Disc chart, or list cups and discs together.