Mooncup

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I once tried on a tampon when I was about 15 or so but I couldn't put it on it was way too painful.

I've tried a few different cups and my current favorite is Fleurcup. They come in many pretty colors and after seeing colored ones I just don't want clear ones any more. Divacup worked pretty well, too but they're a bit boring. I've been using cups for about 6 years.

I use a Yuuki cup and like it. I'm never buying tampons again.

I have a diva cup, and I love it. I've had it for like 5 years now. Sometimes if I sit wrong it can lose suction, (meaning a leak..) but if I fold up a square of TP into a tiny square and insert it at the base, (after I put it in, just put the square up against the little tail part..) this doesn't seem to happen. (I forget how I figured that out..)

I've never tried another brand.

Okay, cup question! Suppose you start to leak, and you are in a public place. Presumably you need to empty it, right? How do you wash it? Do you just put it back in with old dried blood in/on it? Do you walk out to the bathroom sink, bleeding all the while, and wash it blithely in the sink? Do you wait until the bathroom is empty, worrying someone will walk in on you washing it? Do you swish it in the toilet (I know toilet water is clean if it's not used; nonetheless, I would not feel it was clean or safe to wear after that). None of these seem like workable options to me, and until that problem is solved permanently, I would not consider using a cup.

They are obviously good for some. I'll stick with tampons. I don't like putting my fingers right up there and I don't like the idea of removing a suction right at the top of my vagina. Each to their own though.

I have a diva cup and this holds my heaviest flow for 8+ hours (and I do have a huge one) so I empty it at home. For comparison I need to change super tampons every 1-2 hours during the same time. This big capacity is the primary reason why I use it.
Once I decided to change it in the public bathroom and I rinsed it in the sink, washed it with soap. You can carry a jar or wet wipes to do it too.

Firstly, it's rare for cups to leak - Mooncup holds 15ml, on average women will only bleed 35ml-80ml over their whole period, so most women can go 12 hours or at least twice as long as they would with tampons/pads without leaking. Secondly, if they do leak due to suction it's light leaking rather than the full flood as with tampons/pads, so easier to deal with - may not need immediate emptying.

How do you wash it?
You can wash in the sink if feeling particularly brave, but most women will either wipe off with toilet paper, use wipes (femme or baby wipes are chemical so you'd still need to rinse off with water but better at cleaning than just water alone, or use wipes wetted with water only, or water and tea tree oil for non-silicone cups), or they use bottled water. No, using toilet water isn't safe, even if rinsing in the flush there's still too much bacteria and yucky stuff around the rim that you just wouldn't want going up into your choochie.

You can reinsert without washing.
Cups don't harbour bacteria and blood is largely contained on the inside of the cup, it is recommended if you do this on occasion that you wash with soap and water once you get home - reinserting the cup without washing is still significantly more hygienic and safer than using tampons. As long as your hands are clean before removal, that's the important thing.

I loose between 180ml-380ml per period - I rarely have to empty in public, if I do then I just reinsert without cleaning, or I'll just pop on a [cloth] pad until I get home. With ultra tampons/pads I'd leak within 15 minutes, with my large Ladycup I can go at least 3 hours and with lighter leaking. If it wasn't for cups I'd not even be able to go out in public during medium to heavy days of my period, lol.

If the issue of cleaning is an issue, consider softcups - disposable, so can be disposed of in public to avoid having to clean, but they can be reused a few times before disposal if you're okay with cleaning at home - these are trickier to use and can leak, however have benefits of menstrual cups in being safer so can be used for 12 hours at any time and with any flow.

The Menstrual Cup Support Community also have a tag with posts that discuss cleaning cups in public; cleaning - in public.

Ideally one does not wait until it is leaking before empting it out.

In a public bathroom I just empty it out and then wipe up as much as I can with toilet paper. The blood on it is not dried at all.

Toilet water is not clean... where would get that idea??

Never tried it, not entirely sure I'd want to, but hey, if you like it, go for it!

If you wash your hands before emtying the cup - then what then can be on the cup? Only the exact same things that are in vagina. So you do not put back in there anything more than was there before. Or anything dangerous.
Your own blood doesn't kill you, seriously. For aesthetical reasons wiping with toilet paper is enough.

You can find them in Walgreens and CVS.

I don't think mine has ever leaked, and that is part of the reason I like it. If I'm out and about then I either try to find a toilet with the sink in the same room, or I just empty it and wipe it with paper. It doesn't tend to get full though, so I could probably wait until I get home most of the time. At home I just rinse it under the tap and I boil it at the end of every period. I think its better for you than tampons becuase its not absorbant.

People really need to understand that their discomfort with the product is justification enough to not use it. They owe no one an explanation for why they use the products that they use. There's no need to pretend there's some health risk or danger in using this product (there is absolutely none) or some unsanitary aspect to it (there is none), nor that there is even a breached archaic ethic that mandates that women pretend they don't menstruate, even around other women in a washroom just for women. The bottom line is that if one is not comfortable with it, one should not use it.

I have a question: can it be used effectively if you've given birth to children and your cervix is no longer totally smooth/round/whatever? I have kind of a "notch" in mine...

What? Too much?

Mine hurt like the dickens the first time I took mine out, but it turns out I wasn't taking it out properly. It was really, really tricky to get out the first few times I used it, but you soon get the hang of it. It doesn't hurt at all for me now, and is so much more comfortable than a tampon. There are loads of removal techniques on the internet for them, you just have to play around and find out which is best for you.