Yeah, with most of these Cups, there's a stem to pull them out. When I was considering them, I forget which one it was, but one had a longer stem, and I was going to go with that one.

I thought I read on those sites that you could only keep them in for 8 hours. Where did you read they can stay in for 12 hours? Is it on the Instead page? I don't think I considered that one, actually...I remember looking at at least three kinds, maybe four, but don't remember if Instead was one of them.

As for using birth control to have fewer periods, I used to do that. I absolutely agree, Diva, it's great. You said you only have your period twice a year? Are you outside the US? I always hear they recommend at least three periods...my gyno also said that. However, I've heard of people doing more, or avoiding their periods entirely. I read about one gyno who hadn't had a period for six years, at the time of my reading. I think it was in one of those women's magazines, like Marie Claire.

Anyway, my problem is, I'm 39, and I worry about the risk increase of taking the pill, now that I'm older. My gyno had said it was ok (I think I was about 36 at the time), but I was still nervous about it. I don't smoke or anything like that, but I'm overweight, and I worry about blood clots.