I have to confess something: I was way late hopping onto the tampon game. I got my period at a pretty normal age, around thirteen or fourteen, but I didn’t start using tampons until after I turned sixteen. Yup, I was that girl wearing a glorified adult diaper when it was that time of the month. Just waddling around like those babies in Pampers commercials with a full diaper.
All the cool girls in my school would brag about wearing tampons, making a big show anytime they took a tampon out of their backpack to go to the restroom. Meanwhile, I stealthily snuck those little square pads into the back pocket of my jeans, hoping no one would see and call me out on it.
I shudder thinking about it now, because, ew, who uses pads anymore? But at the time, I had a reason for why I wouldn’t shove a stick up my prepubescent vag.
Remember “the video”? “The video” is something little kids, separated by gender, watch to learn things about the changes their bodies go through. The girls’ version included stuff about periods and boobs, and I can only assume the boys’ version told taught them how to masturbate. The video talked about the differences between tampons and pads, but the thing that stuck with me the most was their warning on Toxic Shock Syndrome or TSS.
TSS is something that happens after you leave a tampon in for too long, and it can result in serious health problems and even death. My little thirteen-year-old brain basically said “fuck that, I’m not taking that risk,” and from that moment on I was Team Pads. The video didn’t say Team Tampon was the cool group, otherwise, I would’ve reconsidered.
TSS terrified me for the first two years after getting my period, and TBH it still does. It can literally kill you, I think I remember reading a story in Seventeen Magazine about it.
Eventually, I got over my fear and from that point on I never looked back. I’m on Team Tampon for life. But today I read something that brought back that fear with a vengeance.
People submit lots of stories to our site (if you have a good one, you can submit it here) and some of them are good. Some of them are amazing. But most of them are just your run-of-the-mill “I got drunk and did something stupid” stories. I was reading through our submissions and came across one titled “My Tampon Horror Story,” and that it was.
The author of this story (well, paragraph) says that she had a guy over one night, and what do you know, they ended up having sex. The rest of the story continues below.
The next morning I woke up butt ass naked on my bed and the guy was sleeping on the floor next to my bed. I had no idea what happened. I was on my period that night so I just assumed that I had taken my tampon out before we had sex. Eight days later, I got out of the shower and realized something was hanging from my lady parts. It was a tampon. I had sex with a tampon in me and it was stuck up inside of me for a whole week and I had no idea. To add insult to injury, during that week, I was still on my period so I was obviously regularly changing out my tampons with means I had two inside of me all week. Moral of the story ladies — make sure you remove the tampon before you have sex.
Eight. Full. Days. EIGHT. DAYS. How?! How is this girl alive and breathing? I’m still kind of scared to sleep with a tampon in, and that’s only eight hours. This girl had a tampon (sometimes two) inside of her for 192 hours and yet she is fine. I’m in shock.
I have so many questions. Was the tampon growing mold by the time she managed to pull it out? Did it even come out in one piece? And also, HOW DID SHE NOT DIE?
It’s almost amazing that she’s perfectly okay. In all honesty, she probably should get checked out just to make sure everything is one hundred down there. I shared this gross but amazing story because frankly, I almost don’t believe it. I also shared it because it could happen to anyone. Sometimes you just forget, and as weird as that might sound to guys who don’t have vaginas and don’t understand how tampons work, it’s true. Tampons are so great in that you can’t even feel them, but that’s also why they’re so dangerous.
This girl was lucky, #blessed even, because that story could’ve had a whole different ending. This is just a friendly reminder to check yourself before you wreck yourself. If you don’t remember if you took your tampon out before sex, or if you go to sleep and can’t remember if you put one in the night before, do a quick little check up down there to make sure.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go change my tampon. .
Image via Shutterstock
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Cristina Montemayor
Cristina is a Grandex Writer and Content Manager. She was an intern for over two years before she graduated a semester early to write about college full time, which makes absolutely no sense. She regretfully considers herself a Carrie, but is first and foremost a Rory. She tends to draw strong reactions from people. They are occasionally positive. You can find her in a bar as you're bending down to tie your shoes, drinking Dos XX and drunk crying to Elton John. Email her: cristina@grandex.co (not .com).
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