Tampons are Tools of Patriarchy

[formergothardite]

My gran used to say commercial pads were a con. She remembered when commercial ones became popular with poorer women - prior to that disposibles were extensive and most ordinary woman had the soaking bucket in the kitchen. She said that how home made ones were more absorbant and more comfy. Thought she was just old fashioned, but once I tried cloth pads myself I realised she'd been right. To make disposable ones as absorbent as cloth ones Kotex etc had to add a plastic backing which makes you sweaty, increases heat down there and encourages bacteria. All that causes soreness and odour. Add in the absorbant granuals they put in now and that makes matters worse.

Sometimes our grandparents did know better!

I had trouble with yeast infections right after my period until I switched to cloth. I do have pretty light periods but I've never had any trouble with leaking. I get the thin cloth kind and they are very comfortable.

[SpeakNow]

Is there any trick to finding a comfortable tampon? I've tried several brands and sizes, but none of them have ever get comfortable at all. I love swimming in the summer, but I hate wearing tampons.

Edited because comparable is not the same as comfortable.

[Sola]

I'm tempted to try cloth pads, but I don't know how I'd wash them. I go through a lot of pads when I'm on my period. I can't imagine washing them in my kitchen sink, and I can't imagine carrying them down to the laundry room I share with everyone else in my building, either.

I've never really had issues with heat/sweat/odour while wearing pads, so I guess I'm lucky.

I loved them and wish I'd discovered them sooner. I used to rinse them in cold water, then would wash them with whatever else was going in the machine at the time. At the end of my period I would give the lot a hot wash. I line dried mine too, which no doubt made my neighbours talk ;)

[Arete]

Honest question, for those who use tampons, why do you prefer them to pads? I thought about switching, but there just seemed to be so many negatives to tampons - greater risk of toxic shock and UTIs, greater risk of leaks, shouldn't sleep with them in overnight, messier to dispose of (if you don't flush them). I'm asking because I've honestly considered giving tampons a try, but what are the benefits beyond swimming and playing sports?

The risk of leaks has always been far less for me wearing a tampon. It is some trial and error, but you can usually figure out how long a particular size will last with your specific flow. Never had TSS in 3 decades. Never had a UTI that I could link back to tampon use, but I can't deny I can see why some women might be suseptible. I have always flushed them except when I am in Europe. When my flow is heavy, pads feel gross. In the summer, I am always afraid the contours of a pad can be made out through my lighter weight pants. I have seriously ruined far more undergarments with pad use than with tampon use. I wear pads at night. I wear pads on the last 2 days of my cycle because the flow is not enough for a tampon and those suckers hurt if you have to pull them out dry. Each type (pads or tampons) have particular uses for me. YMMV.

I have never particularly felt as one with womankind during my period, and I don't find them to be enpowering experiences. So for me, the less I notice it, the better I feel about it. YMMV.

[GolightlyGrrl]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I totally wanted to ask that. I had visions of Michelle Duggar with my whole years worth lost up her nether regions.

But tampons are for sluts! Michelle uses pads the size of a life raft.

[ILoveJellybeans]

I asked my mom to buy me pads once, and the ones she bought were huge bit fat things, about half an inch thick, with no wings and the sticky bit wasnt as sticky as it should be, and it would bunch up and become useless. I never thought of who would ever want to buy them when there are even ones for heavy flows which arent that huge....but maybe its something a fundie would buy because it makes periods suck worse and anything that makes life slightly more pleasant is illegal for them.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

One reason why tampons might be uncomfortable or leaky is incorrect application. You know that pamphlet that comes with the box of tampons that tells you to put one foot up on something and then insert? I only figured out a few years ago that that's not a suggestion. If you put the tampon in sitting down, it's much more difficult to get it in there properly, and you're more likely to feel it and to have problems with it not catching everything. This goes double if you're using non-applicator tampons.

[Conuly]

I go through a lot of pads when I'm on my period. I can't imagine washing them in my kitchen sink, and I can't imagine carrying them down to the laundry room I share with everyone else in my building, either.

Well, what do you do if you leak into your panties and pants or onto your sheets? Do you throw them out, or do you wash them?

[singsingsing]

Well, what do you do if you leak into your panties and pants or onto your sheets? Do you throw them out, or do you wash them?

I wash them, but I don't leak onto my underwear multiple times a day when I'm on my period, let alone soak them through. There's a big difference between throwing a pair of underwear with a bit of blood stained on them into the wash maybe one time your entire cycle, and having to wash multiple cloth pads that are meant to soak up everything.

[salex]

Honest question, for those who use tampons, why do you prefer them to pads? I thought about switching, but there just seemed to be so many negatives to tampons - greater risk of toxic shock and UTIs, greater risk of leaks, shouldn't sleep with them in overnight, messier to dispose of (if you don't flush them). I'm asking because I've honestly considered giving tampons a try, but what are the benefits beyond swimming and playing sports?

I am past those days, however, here are my answers. I preferred tampons to pads because I found pads, especially when I was younger, bulky and uncomfortable and tampons were not. I hated pads at night--I toss and turn and they never stayed in place. And from the time I was 20, I've slept in the nude nearly every night, so there is that.

Only when I was perimenopausal and had a serious heavy flow (so heavy I developed anemia that required transfusions) did I use both to avoid leaks. I never got UTIs from them (didn't even know that was a risk) and since I changed them frequently, was not at high risk for Toxi Shock. Much of that particular risk was related to the introduction of highly absorbant materials in the late 70s that allowed women to wear the tampons for too long. Once that rash of cases was figured out, the recommendations of regular changing and not using a more absorbant pad than is needed made that risk much less, I think.

For me, the right tampon (and you may want to try a few different types to fine the kind you like) is completely unnoticeable, which, other than a panty liner, can't be said for any pad I ever tried. I never found a pad that I didn't feel when walking or sitting or moving. The ones today (that I used until I no longer needed them about a year ago) are somewhat better than they were years ago, but pads in general don't do it for me. And, I don't see them as harder to dispose of--wrap them in a bit of toilet paper and put them in the stall can in public restrooms... I had a lined trashcan next to my toilet, with a swinging lid, and would just wrapt it in a little toilet paper or, if it wasn't too messy, slide it into the wrapper of the replacement tampon, and put it in the trash.

[DistantStar]

One reason why tampons might be uncomfortable or leaky is incorrect application. You know that pamphlet that comes with the box of tampons that tells you to put one foot up on something and then insert? I only figured out a few years ago that that's not a suggestion. If you put the tampon in sitting down, it's much more difficult to get it in there properly, and you're more likely to feel it and to have problems with it not catching everything. This goes double if you're using non-applicator tampons.

When I do use 'em, I just spread my legs and squat a bit. The leg up maneuver is super awkward for me. I can't say I ever tried it sitting down, that's a new one!

salex, here' s the odd thing about me and pads - while I use super thin ones, I actually like noticing it's there, because then I don't worry so much about any accidental leakage because I have an easier time remembering when it's time to see if I need a change. I don't trust tampons without backup unless I am actually swimming at the time. I do have an annoying heavy flow thing going for a day or two, plus...TMI time...clots. Pads just work better for me.

[meep]

Okay, I have another question about the menstrual cup. Are they made with latex? I have a latex allergy and having a latex cup shoved up my vagina would not be good.

[RainbowSky]

There is one that I know of (in the US) that is latex. It's called the Keeper. Just get any other one and no problem. Most are silicone. The Diva Cup is the easiest to find by far. But as multiple posters, including myself have mentioned, we like the UK MoonCup better. It's the size and thickness, etc, I guess.

There are quite a few different ones now but a few of those are ridiculously hard to get a hold of depending on where you happen to be.

[Minerva]

Honest question, for those who use tampons, why do you prefer them to pads? I thought about switching, but there just seemed to be so many negatives to tampons - greater risk of toxic shock and UTIs, greater risk of leaks, shouldn't sleep with them in overnight, messier to dispose of (if you don't flush them). I'm asking because I've honestly considered giving tampons a try, but what are the benefits beyond swimming and playing sports?

Brace yourself, there be TMI ahead. I have a Diva Cup now, but if it weren't for environmental concerns I'd still be using tampons. They're the most comfortable and convenient thing I've ever used.

I hated pads because I have a heavier-than-average flow and had to use maxi pads, which were uncomfortable for me. The pads were huge, ever present and in the way, wedgies happened, sometimes I could feel my own blood touching my skin and found it gross, sometimes the blood touching my skin was inexplicably cold and it was even grosser, the blood would go up my buttcrack, and sometimes it would get on my thighs. It'd take me forever to use the bathroom because I felt the need to wipe up all of the blood before I changed the pad and pulled my pants up. Sometimes I'd have to shower just to get the blood off my ass. Couldn't lay on my back or lean too far back unless I was wearing two pads one behind the other, or else the blood would trickle up my butt crack and stain things. Couldn't wear two pads in public because those inevitably showed, so I was stuck sitting up straight my whole period. The blood kind of stained my pubes red, which shouldn't happen when you're as dark-haired as I am. The pads showed through my body suits and tight pants. They're like 10 times the size of a tampon, so I felt worse sending them to a landfill than tampons. I could never use the locker room showers on my period because when I washed the blood off my ass, you'd see a trail of it going to the drain (kind of like in Carrie). Bloody towels happened. Blood clots dried up in the pubes and had to be pulled out. I had to change them more often than tampons because I couldn't stand the feeling of a pad heavy with warm blood in my pants. They just had a way of grossing me out despite the fact that I'm not squeamish about blood and don't mind getting a bit on my hands when I change an OB tampon or my Diva cup.

With tampons, the blood stays on the inside. It doesn't migrate all over my body, and the one time I had a leak, it was just a little red spot on my panty liner. Changing tampons is just as quick as changing pads for me. They cause me no discomfort and I don't feel them at all. I'm not afraid of TSS, since the risk is absolutely minuscule. I hardly ever have the opportunity to sleep longer than 8 hours, so I do wear them overnight. If I was going to sleep longer than 8 hours, I'd set an alarm for the 8 hour mark and go back to bed after changing it. I never found disposing of them messy. Just pulled them out, plopped them onto a wad of toilet paper and wrapped them up. I've never had a UTI and wouldn't even consider worrying about tampons causing a UTI unless I was prone to them.

ETA: Funny thing is, though, I wouldn't swim in a nice clean pool with a tampon. My vag has this thing where it sucks up water when I'm bathing or swimming. Tampon gets soaked from the bottom up, the blood sitting in the top half of the tampon dilutes throughout the whole tampon. Then gravity draws it down and I'm leaking a pale pink liquid. It's bad enough when I leak plain water after getting out of the pool. I expect I'd have better results with my Diva cup, but my cramps are usually too bad for swimming anyway.

[Minerva]

Jeez. Tampons are the tools of the patriarchy because they allow people to hide their flow from themselves. Pads are tools of the patriarchy because fundy girls are forced to wear them because their fathers own their hymens. Menstrual cups are tools of the patriarchy because they force women to interact with their menstrual flow like this is the 17th century or something.

Know what's actually a tool of the patriarchy? People criticizing what other people do with their vaginas.

You're not going to eradicate menstrual stigma by stigmatizing options you don't like. Or by ignoring the needs of people with blood phobias, for that matter.

[miffy]

I've got a Diva Cup & a Meluna. Diva Cups are good to start off with as they are firmer & easier to get in place. However I prefer the softer Meluna. Use a pad or panty liner with the cup for the first period or too. It takes a bit of getting used to knowing when its full etc.

I can't even look at the cup when its full because I go into shock when I see blood. So yeah, definitely won't ever be finger painting with my bodily fluids. I think cups are brilliant because they are clean, cheap (in the long run) & better for the environment.

Also often skip my period over summer, by not bothering with sugar pills. Does that make me extra feminist because I take total control of my cycle or not a feminist because I don't want to worship my inner moon goddess & write poetry with blood?

[FearLyss]

Damn, I use tampons. I had no idea I was such a bad feminist. I find them more comfortable. I don't see why a woman can't just use whichever method she prefers without some sort of judgement.

I have had many experiences with men seeing my tampons. I am not ashamed, I am 25, I am supposed to bleed each month. Once, in high school, my bag fell and scattered my contents. A male friend in front of me started to help me gather everything, until he saw that tampon. He turned white and just stopped, frozen. Eventually, he sat up and turned to the front, while my friend and I cracked up. Another time, also in high school, I was at a Wawa (convenience store) and pulled a tampon (among other items) out to get to my wallet. I placed it on the counter and the cashier was mortified!

I was judged by a current female co-worker. She is open about her virginity and religious beliefs (I don't feel a need to share my sex life or lack of belief at work) but when she stopped by my cubicle to ask for a pad, I told her I had tampons she could have. She looked at me like I was crazy, said NO with a disgusted look on her face, and walked away. I actually felt dirty. It was so bizarre, lol.

My cousin (17) also saw a tampon of mine. She asked why I used them, since I am not married, and thus, she assumed I am a virgin. I knew my family was against pre-marital sex and think tampons take your virginity, but I assumed she had friends in school who used them and wouldn't be so shocked by it. It was odd to see her react with such concern over something so trivial.

[Sola]

I wash them, but I don't leak onto my underwear multiple times a day when I'm on my period, let alone soak them through. There's a big difference between throwing a pair of underwear with a bit of blood stained on them into the wash maybe one time your entire cycle, and having to wash multiple cloth pads that are meant to soak up everything.

I rinsed mine in the washing machine. I would put a days worth of pads in and put the machine on a single rinse and spin cycle. Then I'd leave them in there and just add whatever my next load was and wash the pads with that. Obviously that might be an issue for you if you share washing facilities and wanted/needed to hand rinse. For me any inconvenience was balanced out by the discomfort I had with disposable pads and the problems I had with tampons and the mooncup.

I've recently made some for my daughter. She's twelve and autistic + other issues. She hasn't startedher periods yet but has begun puberty so it wwon't be long. We've done a few trial runs with disposable pads to get her used to them but she hates them. She has sensory integration issues and has lots of problems with underwear - trying to get her to wear a bra is a battle that I've conceded defeaton. After seseveral attempts with disposable pads I made her a cloth one to try and she much prefers it so I made her a dozen more ready for whenshe does start.

[Savoring Samsara]

Honest question, for those who use tampons, why do you prefer them to pads? I thought about switching, but there just seemed to be so many negatives to tampons - greater risk of toxic shock and UTIs, greater risk of leaks, shouldn't sleep with them in overnight, messier to dispose of (if you don't flush them). I'm asking because I've honestly considered giving tampons a try, but what are the benefits beyond swimming and playing sports?

I used pads as a teenager and switched to tampons in college. Using pads, I always felt really self-conscious, like I was wearing a diaper, and that everyone could hear the pad crinkling when I moved (even though this was likely not the case). I've also always had a heavy flow and so had near constant leaks with pads, since they always seemed to get squished off to one side. With tampons, I couldn't even tell I was wearing them, and have basically never had a leak.

[Sumeri]

Well, I cycle between pads and tampons as the spirit moves me. Yep, not only a tool of the patriarchy, but an indecisive tool of the patriarchy. Feminism will never be able to march into the glorious future until I am straighten out. :shrug:

Same here. Tampons are uncomfortable for me at the beginning of my cycle if I feel crampy. After that first day they're okay.

Put me down as another woman who couldn't do the diva cup. I must have a really oddly shaped cervix, because I swear the cup generated this amazingly strong suction once I had it up in there. It felt like I was trying to suck out my hoo ha with a vacuum hose. I tried to make it work, because those babies aren't cheap, but I was constantly digging around up there trying to get it in the right position and then 10 minutes later it was off again. Hated it.

Am I the only one who hates the thin pads that feel all plastic? Especially the "winged" ones. Those flaps are always coming loose and getting stuck where they shouldn't be. The only ones I can stand now are the overnight kotex which are as long as a surfboard but still feel like they are made of cotton, instead of that slick plastic awfulness.

[Peas n carrots]

What a weird ass article. Tampons were never a tool of the patriarchy...they just made sense. I was a very athletic teen, and pads do not go with swimming and running around very well. I never once thought "oh gee I want to hide my period from the world" more like " I want to swim and not run around with a wad of paper between my legs."

I remember reading in a magazine years ago in the embarrassing stories section how a girl on a basketball team got her period right before a game and she nor her teammates had any tampons or pads on hand. So she just folded up some toilet paper and got on with it's. During the course of the game, while she was playing it fell out and she did not immediately notice...however the referee did and stopped the game to find out who was injured LOL. Of course she did not come forward to claim.

[bananacat]

For those who hate pads, have you tried them recently? There are many different types out there and I've never had an issue with odor, bunching, leaking, or moving around, except in the rare cases when I have to use the really cheap free ones that are stocked in my work bathroom. Good one exist out there and they are vastly different than the ones from even 10 years ago.

[Minerva]

For those who hate pads, have you tried them recently? There are many different types out there and I've never had an issue with odor, bunching, leaking, or moving around, except in the rare cases when I have to use the really cheap free ones that are stocked in my work bathroom. Good one exist out there and they are vastly different than the ones from even 10 years ago.

I've got a box of them in my bathroom just in case. They're a newer brand and they've got amazing adhesive. Unfortunately, they feel too papery. I found a brand that felt very soft, but the adhesive wasn't as great. Really, though, as long as they have wings, I don't need to worry about how well the back stays stuck, so the next box I buy will be the softer ones. People always tell me I can wear thin pads, and that maxi pads are old-fashioned, but I'd have to change the thin pads more often. The ones I had to wear when I was a pre-teen and had first started my period were terrible, I have no idea why my mom never tried any other brand.

[bananacat]

Well, for any other pad users out there, I absolutely Always with Infinicil. It's a new type that only came out a few years ago, and it's like a foam. It's really thin and really absorbent. I have a pretty light flow and even the regulars are way overpowered for me; I just leave a little spot in the middle. I've never tested them out with water or anything, but I think they would work really well even for very heavy flows.

[singsingsing]

I use Always ultra thin with leak guard and wings. I have a heavy flow and I've never had a problem. The only time I've had leaks is sometimes if I leave one on overnight and sleep in too late. They're pretty comfortable and the adhesive is really good.

Thank you all for your thoughts/advice about tampons. I'm going to give them a try. :) If I end up liking them I might ultimately try switching to cloth pads for backup/light days, too.

I've changed my mind. After doing more reading on the subject, I've decided against using tampons. The risks may be small, but they're risks I'm not willing to take when there are other methods that also work. I am prone to health anxiety, so I don't feel like needlessly creating worry for myself.

I may try the diva cup again, but to be honest, I'm still kind of traumatized from last time. When I tried to take it out, it was like it had created suction, and it was incredibly painful. It was kind of funny - I'm terrified of epidurals and if I ever give birth I always planned to do so naturally, but taking the diva cup out hurt so much that all I could think was, "If THIS hurts this much, if I ever give birth I'm getting the damn epidural!"

So. It may be that I'm back at square one, and I'll just continue on with pads. :P