Victoria’s Love menstrual cup – the cup you don’t have to remove to empty

Recently I was approached by another company called Victoria’s Love (VL) to test out their version of the menstrual cup, which has an interesting feature not often seen – a release valve at the end of the stem so you can empty the discharge without removing the menstrual cup from your body. This turned out to be my favourite menstrual cup and the one I use most regularly up to today – read on for my review on the Victoria’s Love menstrual cup.

My journey with menstrual cups

I started off with the Lunette menstrual cup when I was looking for an alternative to sanitary pads and tampons. I used the Lunette regularly both at home and while travelling, and have generally been quite happy with it – it’s less obtrusive, I feel cleaner when using it as compared to sticky sanitary pads, and I feel better as it’s more environmentally friendly and I’m not constantly tossing used pads or tampons.

All the menstrual cups I’ve tested in this time. Scroll down for the Victoria’s Love review, or go check out my reviews of the Lunette and the Lily Cup

It’s not always been perfect – sometimes I don’t insert it properly or empty it often enough and spring a bit of a leak, or I somehow end up spilling discharge on my hands as I’m emptying the cup. In the first few cycles I was too tense and can’t insert it quickly so my toilet runs take extra long. Overall, I still love it and can’t imagine switching back to pads ever again.

Victoria’s Love Menstrual Cup and its special valve

Open position – ball in the tip below the holes

How it works is that there are 2 holes on the side of the stem where the discharge empties out. The flow is controlled by a little ball plug in the stem that acts as a stopper – you squeeze it along the tube with your fingers to positions above and below the holes to block and unblock the flow respectively, kinda like a tap for your vagina.

Closed position – ball wedged in tube above the holes

This is pretty revolutionary because one issue I have with the menstrual cup is having to perpetually remove the cups to empty them and insert them again. Some days if I’m a bit rough or hurried, I do feel a little bit sore from all that insertion action. And also, not all toilets are nice ones where you feel comfortable removing your menstrual cup in, especially when you are on the go. This saves you so much time and trouble as you can just sit on the toilet, reach down, empty the discharge over the toilet and plug it back up, all without having the remove the cup.

My review of Victoria’s Love Menstrual Cup

The Small Victoria’s Love menstrual cup

I really like the discharge valves – they are the best idea about this cup so I use this one the most often. I really don’t like taking out the cup in dodgy bathrooms, and when my flow is heavy I need to empty the cup every 4 hours or so, so this saves me all that effort, important especially when I’m in transit.

The design of the valve with the ball plug is pretty simple, but it’s not without its flaws – I’ve nearly lost the ball plug while washing the cup in a sink as I squeezed it too far upwards and it sprang loose from the tube valve, so be careful with that as the cup is useless without the ball plug.

If your period is a bit clumpy, you will need to squeeze the tube valve a little to get the clumps out through the holes. Again be careful here – I accidentally squeezed a little too enthusiastically once while discharging the valve and lost one of the ball plugs in a public loo – somehow it got squeezed out through the discharge holes.It shouldn’t happen since the holes are technically smaller than the ball, but the elasticity of the material means that if you try hard enough, you can squeeze the ball out.

(There was no way I was going to put my hand in to a public loo to retrieve the ball plug, but luckily I had the set with small and large sizes, so I just stole the ball from the Large size to replace)

Protip 1: Put a piece or two of toilet paper in the toilet first, so that when the discharge falls in, it falls onto the paper and not the bottom of the bowl. Some toilets don’t flush very well and you need to flush several time to get rid of the stains, but the toilet paper makes it easier to whisk the evidence away.

Protip 2: When you release the valves, it tends to release a bit of pressure build up inside your body so things can get a bit spurty if you are not careful. One thing I sometimes do is wrap a little toilet paper around the valve as I discharge, so that it’s neater and the pressure doesn’t shoot discharge onto my hands. That pressure also can make it tricky to dislodge the menstrual cup – make sure the ball plug is in the open position and it should be easier for you.

The original length of the Victoria’s Love was kinda long even for me and it poked out of my body, which was a bit uncomfortable if I didn’t put it in the right position. They made it shorter and smaller in the subsequent version and sent me that, which is the one I still use today. Here’s a look at the size difference:

From Left: The original version (Large), the original version (Small) 88mm, the new version (Small) 75mm, which is pictured in this article

Some women with shorter cervices still find it way too long for them, and you can’t trim the stem because of the discharge valve.

The material is FDA standard and tested according to their website, but it feels a bit more plasticky and less firm compared to the matt finish of the Lunette and Lily Cup. Also I’m personally not a fan of clear silicone because it tends to discolour after awhile – my cup was originally a whitish tint, now it’s kinda yellowy/brown tinted. It’s a small thing, I mean no one is really going to look at the colour of your cup…

Where to buy Victoria’s Love Menstrual Cup:

• Victoria’s Love on Amazon – * update*they used to sell the cup here, but now they only have the sterilizer and sadly they don’t ship to Singapore.  Note that this is an affiliate link which means I may get a small % off sales if you click and do buy from here, no additional cost to you, think of it has helping to fund this website
• Ebay – I know it does look a bit dodgy, but they do reply emails and have generally been quite helpful so far.

The full set comes with the mini steriliser and the small and large cup in a round case.

You can also buy the mini steriliser to keep your menstrual cup clean. I use it on very rare occasions when I remember to, but honestly unless you are very icked out about boiling your menstrual cup (maybe use a separate pot from the ones you eat with if you are going to boil it on a stove), there isn’t a real need for this very specialised steaming product.

Check out my other menstrual cup reviews:

• Lunette – my first menstrual cup and why women travellers should consider using them
• Lily Cup Compact – the world’s first collapsible menstrual cup

Happy to answer any questions about the Victoria’s Love menstrual cup – just drop me a comment.

The Victoria’s Love menstrual cups and mini steriliser were sponsored, but the review and opinions are all my own