I'm afraid of Tampons. (TMI)

[Judith_Prietht]

@Shirley Ujest

Not exactly.

Wash hands and get a paper towel wet before you enter stall.

Sit down to bidness and dump out cup. Use paper towel for cup wiping if needed. Or one of those travel handy wipe thingies for your hands. Not the cup. They have rubbing alcohol in them and that would probably be bad in the long run.

Insert and exit back out to wash hands as normal, crushing your fingers into the paper towel to hide any possible blood staining ( miniminal) making you look like you’ve committed murder in a public restroom and toss the paper towel in. I have to say that I rarely encounter anyone in the john anyways and I’ve used mine for 5 years. So, no worries. w00t!

The cup is just the coolest thingie that makes men totally squeamish.

Yep. That’s basically my M.O. Wad up a bunch of wet paper towels and carry them in with me.

I find that I can go pretty much the entire day at work–even on heavy flow days–without having to empty the cup. Unlike tampons, where I was changing every three hours.

[tremorviolet]

@Glory

Weird - I can’t even think of the last time I had to dispose of a plastic applicator and there wasn’t a trash can RIGHT THERE by the toilet. What I normally do is tear off the top of the plastic packaging, insert the tampon and then slide the used applicator inside the original packaging. Nothing gross or unsightly about that!

You know, I can tell you exactly where that phobia started. Walt Disney World on a summer vacation with my family when I was maybe 13 or 14? Had just started using tampons and there either wasn’t a trashcan in the stall or maybe I just didn’t recognize it. And it just felt so horribly obvious to sidle over to the trashcan. :o (ok, so I totally recognize that as silly now but I’m also no longer 13)

[StarvingButStrong]

@Penchan

I’m terrified because during my periods, I have a very sore, achey feeling around my vagina, and my vulva becomes very sensitive. I’m the type of person who would rather take a painkiller and wish it away, not poke and prod around it to see what would happen. This is what it felt like when I tried putting in a tampon for the first time. I was so sore, and I didn’t put it in correctly and it felt very awkward until I pulled it out. And good lord when I pulled the tampon out, apparently I didn’t bleed enough so there was blinding pain when I pulled it out. That’s the main reason I’m terrified of tampons. I usually feel under the weather while on my period, but I’d rather not have to feel like that AND also feel like I’m wearing a diaper, so I’m trying my best to give tampons another chance.

Ah. Sorry for assuming you were squeamish – the obvious answers are all too often not the right ones.

I don’t know what can be done to work around vulvar pain, I don’t get that symptom. Deep belly pain, and back pain, oh my! It feels like someone took out my spine disks and replaced them with handfuls of glass shards. <shudder> Do things of the midol/advil/tylenol persuasion help at all?

As for the last bit, Oh, YES! Pulling out a tampon before it’s time can be agony! The things are so absorbent that they stick viciously to your flesh until they’ve soaked up enough moisture to be ‘happy’ and slick.

Even worse, if you DO take a tampon out too soon, it has totally sucked all moisture off the surface of your vagina, meaning putting the next one in can be almost impossible.

All I can suggest is adding lubrication. You have to be using an applicator type, but then you can grease up the outside well with astroglide or its ilk (and saliva is actually a not-horrible replacement if you don’t have anything else.)

One thing I’ve got to say, is that I’m really enjoying the lack of, well, snarky comments from those who do not have the necessary bits to make tampons a steady part of their being. I guess the male Doper popoulation are 1) being very mature or 2) have fled this thread with silent screams long ago.

[tremorviolet]

@Penchan

And good lord when I pulled the tampon out, apparently I didn’t bleed enough so there was blinding pain when I pulled it out. That’s the main reason I’m terrified of tampons.

MAJOR TMI:

I’ve got this problem sometimes and I know what it is (with me anyways). I’ve got a relatively thick band of hymen left intact (and, lord knows, I’m not a virgin). Usually, it’s just slides over to the side but occasionally the bottom of the tampon (usually when I’m on the lighter flow part of my period so there’s not as much lubrication) will snag on it and it hurts like crazy (this pain is totally different fromt he dry, raspy pain that comes from an overly dry tampon). I know now that I can just reach up and nudge the band off with a finger (I can feel the band over the edge of the tampon) so the tampon will slip out easily. Anyway, you might try seeing if that’s your problem next time…