Your Tampon Is Making Your Cramps Worse
Your Body Was Never the Problem
Your tampon was engineered to push outward against your vaginal walls. On purpose. To stop leaks. Comfort was never part of the design.
Quilla Reusable Menstrual Disc
Sits in the fornix, not the canal. Collects instead of absorbs. 12 hours of wear. One disc lasts up to 10 years.
"Finally not mad once a month about being a woman."
Medical-grade silicone • Reusable • No applicators, no chemicals, no monthly restock
She Figured It Out Before Anyone Explained It to Her
A woman named Marissa left this review after switching from tampons to a menstrual disc. Not ours. She'd never heard of us, and we had nothing to do with it.
"I will never look at a box of tampons the same. These [discs] have changed my life. I don't know why or what the science is behind it, but after I insert it, my cramps are relieved unlike a tampon when the chemicals are releasing in our body, I cramp so much worse."
— Marissa, reviewing a menstrual disc she bought from another company
She was right about what was happening to her body. She was close on why.
It isn't chemicals. It's shape.
And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
Choose Your Size
Small (30ml) or Large (50ml) — also available in Purple or Red, cosmetic only, doesn't affect fit. $29.99.
☑ Ships in 1–2 business days, tracked
☑ Unopened and unused? Full refund within 30 days. Arrived damaged or defective? We replace or refund it, no return needed.
1. It's Not Your Body. It's Your Tampon.
About 71% of women worldwide have painful periods. You are not the outlier you were made to feel like.
Of the women surveyed by Mumsnet in 2025, 64% had a doctor tell them their pain was normal or in their head. Endometriosis UK found 78% were told they were making a fuss about nothing. The average endometriosis diagnosis takes 6.6 years.
And for roughly 18% of women with period pain, ibuprofen barely does anything at all (Oladosu et al., Am J Obstet Gynecol, 2018). If that's you, the standard advice ran out years ago.
So you got handed two options. Either the pain is normal and you should cope with it, or the pain is you.
Nobody offered a third one.
Nobody suggested looking at the thing you insert into your body on the worst day of your cycle.
2. The Patents Say It Out Loud
This part is public. It has been public for over twenty years.
US tampon patents describe engineering tampons to expand widthwise so they can "bridge across the vaginal cavity" and "contact the inner walls of the vagina." (US Patents 6,682,513 and 6,039,716.)
Read that again. Contact the inner walls. Deliberately.
That's how a tampon stops a leak. It swells outward until it presses against you and seals.
Now think about what a cramp actually is. Your uterus contracting, hard, over and over, for hours. And on your heaviest day, into all that pressure, you insert the biggest and most absorbent tampon in the box.
Absorbency was a design target. Leak protection was a design target. Your comfort was never on the list.
The tampon isn't badly made. It was made brilliantly, for a goal that had nothing to do with your pain.
3. Organic Cotton Doesn't Change the Shape
A lot of women land here first. Organic cotton. No bleach, no fragrance, no synthetics. It seemed like the obvious answer, and it cost more, and the cramps stayed exactly where they were.
Here's why that happened. An organic tampon expands the same way a conventional one does, because expansion is the whole mechanism. Change the fibre and you still have an object that swells sideways and presses against your canal walls, because that is the only way a tampon can do its job.
The material was never the problem. The problem is where it sits and what it does when it gets there.
That's an architecture problem. And you cannot fix architecture with cotton.
4. The Disc Sits Somewhere Else Entirely
Most women have never heard the word. The fornix is the deep recess at the very top of the vaginal vault, above the canal, tucked behind your pubic bone.
A disc doesn't sit in the canal. It rests in that upper space, hooked behind the pubic bone, which is what holds it in place. No suction, and no rim pressing outward to form a seal.
It collects your flow in a shallow reservoir instead of absorbing it, so it also isn't wicking away the natural moisture your body needs.
Which means the pressure stops. Nothing expands inside your canal, and nothing is drying you out while your uterus is already contracting.
Left: a tampon expanding against the canal walls. Right: a disc settled behind the pubic bone, no pressure against anything.
An independent reviewer put it this way:
"People struggling with painful periods: The design and placement in your fornix means significantly less compression and cramping. Life changing for bad menstrual pain."
— 33rd Square, independent product review
And now we're going to be straight with you, because you've had enough people not be.
There is no peer-reviewed clinical trial proving that fornix placement reduces menstrual cramps. It doesn't exist. Nobody has run it.
What does exist: a documented mechanism, thousands of women independently reporting the same thing without being prompted, and one brand survey in which 64% of disc users said they had fewer cramps than with their previous product. That was a survey run by a company about its own customers, not a controlled study, and we're telling you that rather than letting you assume otherwise.
We'd rather you buy this knowing exactly what the evidence is and isn't.
5. Not a Cup. Not a Tampon. A Third Thing.
If you tried a menstrual cup and gave up, that experience does not predict this one.
A cup works by suction. It sits low in the vaginal canal and forms a seal by pressing outward with a firm rim, which is exactly the sensation you're trying to get away from, and it's why removal can be so unpleasant.
A disc holds position with your anatomy instead of with pressure. Different place, different physics, different feeling.
Against a tampon it's simpler still. A tampon absorbs, expands, and touches your canal walls. A disc collects, holds its shape, and doesn't.
Even the cup companies know the difference. Saalt and DivaCup both send low-cervix and IUD customers to discs rather than to their own cups.
Why Nobody Told You
There was no cover-up. We looked, and we're not going to invent one.
What we found is duller and somehow worse.
In 2022 the NIH spent about $16 million on endometriosis research. That's 0.038% of its budget, and it works out to roughly $2.00 per patient, per year.
Crohn's disease got about $90 million the same year. Around $130 per patient. Sixty-five times more.
Prostate cancer, which affects a comparable number of people, got about $311 million in 2024.
A 2021 analysis in the Journal of Women's Health found the gap between disease burden and actual funding is nearly twice as large for conditions that mainly affect women.
It shows up in the room, too. A 2008 study of 981 emergency department patients found that at identical pain scores, women were 13 to 25% less likely to be given opioids, and waited longer to get anything at all. Sixty-five minutes versus forty-nine.
So nobody told you your tampon might be adding to your cramps because nobody was funded to ask. The question wasn't buried. It just wasn't worth anyone's grant money.
Marissa figured it out anyway, from her own body, and posted it in a review.
Change Your Mind in the First 30 Days. We'll Take the Risk.
We're not going to pretend there's no learning curve. Cycle one can be fiddly. Most women have it down by cycle two, some by the third.
Haven't opened it yet? Change your mind within 30 days of delivery and we'll refund you in full — no questions.
Opened it and something's wrong — it arrived damaged, defective, or not what you ordered? Tell us within 30 days and we'll replace it or refund you in full. You don't need to send anything back.
For hygiene reasons, once a disc has been used we can't accept it back for a change-of-mind refund — that's true of any personal-use product. If yours isn't working out after you've given it a fair try, our team can walk you through fit and technique first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will it leak?
Not once it's seated correctly, which usually takes a cycle or two to get consistent. When a disc leaks it's almost always because the front rim hasn't tucked up behind the pubic bone. Push it down and back toward your tailbone first, then tuck the front rim up. If you're still leaking after two cycles, that's what the guarantee is for.
Is it messy to remove?
Less than you're picturing, more than a tampon on your first go. Hook a finger under the front rim, keep it level, and pull down and forward. The pull notch is there so you're not fishing for the edge. Most women do the first few removals in the shower and stop bothering after that.
How does it stay in without suction?
Your pubic bone. The rim tucks up behind it and the bone holds the disc in place. That's the whole mechanism, and it's why there's no seal pressing outward against your canal.
I tried a disc before and it was too big.
Sizing across this category is genuinely inconsistent, and a lot of women get put off by one bad fit. Quilla comes in two sizes, Small and Large. If Large sits too long or you can feel the rim, size down.
Is it cleaner than a tampon?
It's different. A tampon absorbs, which means it takes up your natural moisture along with your flow. A disc collects into a reservoir and leaves the rest of your body alone. Nothing is wicking, and there are no loose fibres involved.
How long can I wear it?
Up to 12 hours, including overnight.
Why has my doctor never mentioned this?
Most likely because discs are a young consumer category and menstrual products rarely come up in a GP appointment unless you raise them. Endometriosis research received about $2.00 per patient per year in NIH funding in 2022. Period product comfort has almost no research base at all. Your doctor isn't hiding it. It just isn't in front of them.
I have endometriosis / adenomyosis / PCOS. Is this for me?
Quilla is a period product. It is not a treatment for endometriosis, adenomyosis, PCOS, or any medical condition, and we won't tell you otherwise. What we can tell you is that women with these diagnoses are a large share of the people who buy discs and write to us about pressure and comfort. If you're under treatment for a diagnosed condition, talk to your specialist before switching.
Can I use it with an IUD?
Many IUD users do, and several cup brands actively direct IUD users toward discs. Check with your provider first, since strings and placement vary.
What if I can't get it out?
You can't lose it. The vaginal vault is a closed space, and the disc can't travel past your cervix. Bear down gently with your pelvic muscles to bring it lower, then hook the rim. It has always come out.
How long does one last?
Up to 10 years with proper care. Boil between cycles, rinse and reinsert during — full care instructions ship with every order.
Quilla is a Class II medical device intended for the collection of menstrual flow. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition, including endometriosis, adenomyosis, PCOS, or dysmenorrhea. Reports of reduced cramping are user-reported experiences and individual results will vary. No clinical trial has evaluated the effect of menstrual disc placement on menstrual pain. The 64% figure cited above is drawn from a menstrual disc brand's survey of its own customers and is not peer-reviewed research. Nothing here is medical advice or a substitute for care from a qualified provider. If you have severe or worsening pelvic pain, please see a doctor.
Sources referenced on this page: Mumsnet, Medical Misogyny in the NHS, 2025 · Endometriosis UK, 2024 · US Patents 6,682,513 and 6,039,716 · Oladosu, Tu & Hellman, Am J Obstet Gynecol, 2018 · Mirin, J Women's Health, 2021 · Chen et al., Acad Emerg Med, 2008 · NIH RePORT, 2022 and 2024 · npj Women's Health, 2024