Squatting in the shower with my hands covered in blood, I cursed my menstrual cup for its leak-proof suction, which, while great at preventing leaks as it said on the box, was winning the battle I was waging to get that slippery little bugger out of me. For more than an hour, I had twisted and contorted myself trying without success to get a grip on that two-inch piece of silicone. This was my first time using a cup and the first time I had spent such an extended period of time digging inside my vaginal canal. Somewhere along the way, I was horrified to feel something warm, soft, and round bulging out far lower than I had ever felt before.

Feeling a renewed sense of urgency to get the hell out of there, I cried tears of joy when I finally managed to hook a finger under the cup’s seal and pull it out. Then, I turned to the internet to see if what I had experienced was normal. What I found was several women online reporting a similar experience and a BBC article that claimed “menstrual cup misuse ‘can cause pelvic organ prolapse.’”

Most commonly caused by childbirth, prolapse occurs when pelvic organs that serve as walls supporting the vagina collapse, like the cervix or the uterus. With toxic metals recently found in tampons and “forever chemicals” detected in menstrual pads, (though these studies should be interpreted with caution), I wasn’t ready to give up on the menstrual cup just yet. I haven’t had kids, but I wondered: Could this tiny cup possibly exert the same amount of force required to push another human being out of my vagina?

The chances are slim to non-existent, according to pelvic floor and prolapse specialists I spoke to for this story. No research has shown that menstrual cups can increase the risk for prolapse, with one study even showing that menstrual cups could potentially help strengthen pelvic floor muscles.

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