To wear your menstrual cup safely, cleaning is a more than essential step! Here we show you all the tips to have a 100% clean cup.
Do you know the Claribox?
The Claricup box is supplied with each Claricup menstrual cup. Why ? Because it is very useful for disinfectionbut also for transporting the menstrual cup. Moreover, almost 70% of you use the Claricup box(user survey December 2018).
In the past, you may have been in the habit of disinfecting your menstrual cup in a pan. However, we have to admit to ourselves that this is not the most discreet thing. We’ve all heard stories of girlfriends who find themselves having a fight with their partner because it’s not cool to see, and then “What? Then we use this pan to make food ?? ». In short, you have understood that it is not always practical in everyday life.
And then, how do you empty your menstrual cup in the middle of the day? We don’t necessarily have a washbasin in every toilet that would allow us to clean our cup and then put it back. We don’t necessarily have a washbasin in every toilet that would allow us to clean our cup and then put it back. (yes, we know it’s restrictive, but it’s for your own good). Cleaning your cup with a piece of toilet paper or just rinsing it out with whatever is at hand is not very hygienic.
How do you do it then?
That’s why we like our Claricup box, it’s practical for disinfection, discreet and allows you to keep your cup in a safe place, which makes our cleaning routinemore hygienic.
Microwave disinfection of the menstrual cup
After cleaning your cup, all you have to do is :
- Place your menstrual cup in its box.
- Fill the Claricup box with water
- Place everything in your microwave, lid open, 5 min at 750 Watts.
- Wait for it to cool a little before handling it.
Your cup is now disinfected, so you can use it again with complete peace of mind.
If you wish to disinfect your menstrual cup in a pan, it’s possible! We have also validated the disinfection of the cup in this way. To do this, immerse the Claricup menstrual cup in a pot of boiling water for 7 minutes. Everyone is free to choose their own method of disinfection.
Questions / Answers about disinfecting your menstrual cup in the microwave
Are we talking about disinfection or sterilisation?
To talk about sterilisation, the atmosphere and environment in which you are in must be sterile, which is not possible at home.
Thanks to tests carried out by an external laboratory approved by the Ministry of Research, we have validated that the microwave (5 min. at 750 Watts) and boiling water (7 minutes) have an eliminating action on several bacterial species, so we can talk about disinfection.
Why disinfect at 750 Watts for 5 minutes?
At Claripharm, we manage our products, including the Claricup menstrual cup, exactly like Medical Devices, which means that everything we write is validated by tests carried out by an external laboratory. This means that we have carried out tests proving that disinfection is effective in microwaves with a precise power and time, and in boiling water in a pan for 7 minutes.
We recommend that you clean, disinfect or change your Claricup every 6 hours to avoid any risk of Toxic Shock Syndrome. Staphylococcus aureus (the bacterium that causes TSS), in the worst case, can produce the toxin that causes TSS after 6 hours in your body. We therefore recommend that you clean and disinfect your Claricup every 6 hours, to stop the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and not reintroduce bacteria that can cause SCT.
Remember to wash your hands before handling the Claricup to avoid bringing in extra bacteria.
What if my microwave is more powerful and doesn’t offer me the possibility to choose 750 Watts?
As previously mentioned, we have carried out our microwave disinfection tests which validate disinfection at 750W. Disinfection at a higher power will only be better. However, we cannot guarantee that the life of the cup will last up to 5 years of use.
Carrying your menstrual cup with the Claricup box
The majority of users have only one cup. With a cup this would mean that you would have to find a place with a washbasin to be able to quickly clean your cup after 6 hours of wearing it… AND disinfect it. Not easy… In addition, how do you clean your cup? With water? With toilet paper? No this is not hygienic. How to disinfect it? Almost impossible.
This is where the DuoPackand its two Claricup boxes become interesting. Ainsi, vous partez le matin avec votre deuxième tasse propre dans sa boîte et après 6 heures d’utilisation, vous pouvez échanger vos tasses avec facilité. You clean everything up when you arrive home, once you are at ease with your washbasin and microwave. For the sake of discretion, we did not choose a transport and disinfection box in every colour! The Claricup box is sober, neutral, black in colour. Who would ever suspect that you are walking around with your used cup inside?
Why have 2 menstrual cups?
Most of us use the menstrual cupbecause it is reusable and therefore very practical. While keeping the practical dimension (and ecological and economical!), we recommend to have 2 menstrual cupsfor more hygiene .
You start the day wearing a cup. You keep a clean cup in its box that you take with you for the day, and after 6 o’clock you can exchange it with the one you were wearing.
As you may already know, we have carried out our own test on the wearingtime of the menstrual cup. As a precautionary measure and for your health, we recommend a maximum wearing time of 6 hours.
Hygiene measures to be respected
6 hours ? You are going to tell us that it is not very practical to change it. Especially when you’re on the move, at work, or simply away from home. And we know this, because yes at Claripharm we are the first users of our products.
Remember, the cup is reusable, but in order to reuse it it is necessary to maintain it with good hygiene measures. Cleaning with water is not enough to clean your cup, a cleaning routine is necessary (cleaning + disinfection before each use).
Cleaning and disinfection every time? You’re going to tell us, but they really don’t give a damn about us… Already it’s a pain to change your cup every 6 hours, and on top of that you have to disinfect it too?
This is where the DuoPack becomes interesting. Thanks to your 2 cups, you can easily spend a 12-hour day by interchanging them during the day. Once you have arrived in a suitable place, for example on your way home in the evening, you can clean and disinfect your 2 cups.
For the sake of discretion, we did not choose a transport and disinfection box in every colour! The Claricup box is sober, neutral, black in colour. Who would ever suspect that you are walking around with your used cup inside? And then to transport it, it’s much easier in this box than in a textile bag.
The majority of users have only one cup. With a cup this would mean that you would have to find a place with a washbasin to be able to quickly clean your cup after 6 hours of wearing it… AND disinfect it. Not easy… In addition, how do you clean your cup? With water? With toilet paper? No this is not hygienic. How to disinfect it? Almost impossible.
Why 6 hours?
After 6 hours, nasty bacteria can develop in your vagina and lead to infections or even Toxic Shock Syndrome. The risk is rare, but it is present. As a result, we have carried out our test which today allows us to guarantee you a totally safe wearing time of 6 hours. If you would like to know more about Toxic Shock Syndrome, please click here.
Your health comes first
As we know that it is important for our health to have these 2 menstrual cuts, we offer the DuoPack at a preferential rate. The DuoPack is priced at 36€, while the single cup is priced at 26€!
And there you have it, you now know how to simplify your life, at least your periods.
After how long do I have to empty my menstrual cup?
The menstrual cup is a “new” product, which has been in the news a lot lately. In fact, it is not such a new product since the menstrual cup was created in the 1930s by Leona Chalmers.
Claripharm, which has been developing menstrual cups for 5 years, tests and analyses its products and has scientific data to guarantee the quality of the product and the best way to use it. Claripharm carries out all its tests in a laboratory approved by the Ministry of Research. Since 1930, the menstrual cup has evolved, but it remains an unregulated product in Europe. Today we have bibliographical data but no tests have been carried out on the product itself.
Our posture: scientific rigour for guaranteed safety and comfort!
As such, we have obtained ISO13485 certification, an international standard that regulates the quality management of Medical Devices. This status implies quality requirements from the design to your handling. But this status also allows the product and any information about the product to evolve according to known scientific data. At Claripharm we consider that a menstrual cup deserves the status of a Medical Device because it is inserted into our body every month for 5 days for 30 years and remains in prolonged contact with the vaginal mucous membranes. It is important to know that in France and in Europe, the menstrual cup is a hygiene product for everyday consumption, i.e. as regulated as a pen!
Why this test?
In the context of the constant questioning on the development of Toxic Shock Syndrome, it seems to us indispensable to evaluate the risks of use.
This is why we decided to carry out our own test on the Claricup.
With a view to improving the product and in view of developments in scientific data, we carried out a test on the Claricupin September 2017 to determine its wearing time.
The risk of developing a SCT is very rare, but for this small percentage of existing risk, we owe it to you to give you a clear answer on wearing time.
How was this wearing time determined on the Claricup menstrual cup?
Claripharm carried out this test in an external laboratory approved by the Ministry of Research.
This test consisted of measuring the growth of Staphylococcus aureus in the presence or absence of the Claricup menstrual cup, every hour for 12 hours.
Always with the precautionary principle in mind and with the aim of providing you with a healthy product, we have placed ourselves in the worst case scenario. We carried out this test under conditions of use most favourable to the development of staphylococcus aureus.
- We have chosen a culture medium that is even more favourable to the development of Staphylococcus aureus than menstrual fluid.
- The concentration of staphylococcus aureus was already high at the beginning of the test: it is as if you started the test with an already contaminated / poorly cleaned menstrual cup.
We added the culture medium in vials; vials containing a menstrual cup and empty vials. Then we measured how staphylococcus aureus develops, every hour for 12 hours at 37°C.
Staphylococcus aureus begins to produce the toxin responsible for Toxic Shock Syndrome as soon as its growth reaches a plateau. This allows us to define a maximum wearing time of 6 hours.
There is no difference in the development of Staphylococcus aureus, whether there is a Claricup or not. Claricup does not promote Toxic Shock Syndrome.
What we recommend for you :
Based on these scientific results, Claripharm recommends a wearing time of 6 hours.
By following simple and easy hygiene rules (wash your hands before handling the cup & clean the cup before each insertion), you further reduce the risk of contaminating your cup and thus developing TSS.
The safety of our products is at the centre of our concerns & we are already working on solutions to make your life easier, but that’s not all… to be followed in the next news !
Do you have further questions about the daily use of your menstrual cup? Write on social networks or by email to: contact@claripharm.fr
