My girlfriend doesn’t like tampons because she says the string gets wet when she pees and makes it smell and she wonders what other women do about this. What do other women do about this?
Hold the string out of the way.
Don’t wipe (it can pull the string out further and then you start to feel the tampon peeping out, and that might be where the smell is coming from). Make a wad of paper (don’t be one of those pansies who fold their paper first) and stuff it way up there, getting all the crevices, essentially soaking up any wetness.
I haven’t used a pad of my own volition in at least 10 years. In my opinion those smell more and are also uncomfortable. A tampon, inserted fully and correctly, will have no scent. The only drawback is sometimes you end up shoving the string up into yourself and then you have to go digging for it. Not cool.
This is probably better suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
It is probably better suited to the TMI Forum.
If we had one. And I wish we did.
Yep.
Use a Diva Cup. Problem solved.
This is one of the reasons I use Instead.
When I did use tampons I felt the need to change them every time I used the bathroom and I drink a lot of water, so it didn’t work out too well. Removing a tampon that is still dryish is like nails on a chalkboard.
I am now in Drain Bead’s boat, as I use a Diva Cup. However, when I did use tampons, I’d stuff the string in my vagina so that there’d be no pee on it. Problem solved, unless your equipment is arranged such that you end up with pee in your vagina every time you use the bathroom.
If only the title of the thread were more obvious you wouldn’t have been tricked into reading it.
This is my solution as well. I’ve tried Instead (assume Diva Cup is similar?) and haven’t had any luck with it. There’s a slight discomfort, which is less of an issue than the digging to remove it and mess that results. It’s exactly the part of tampons that I really want to avoid, but every single time.
Apologies to all the men who feel this is TMI - you didn’t have to read the thread. 
I just tuck the string sort of to the side and then forward between labia. I guess it goes just a little to the side of the urethra since it doesn’t get pee-soaked this way, and I always know where to find it. Also - yes - firm dabbing with the TP, no wiping.
Yes and no. Instead sits up high by the cervix, Diva Cup (and The Keeper and Moon Cup et al) sit down lower in the vagina, near the vaginal opening.
As a woman who’s never been able to find her cervix, Instead is way too hard for me to use. I tried it once and…well, lets just say that the man in my life was more inconvenienced by this topic than the men who opened this thread. Fishing for your partner’s lost menstrual collection device…not as sexy as it might sound.
But I love the Diva Cup, and loved The Keeper before it.
I had to stifle a laugh at this. Being in public, I really didn’t want to have to explain to anyone what was so funny!
Here to say the same thing. Why women are still using pads and tampons, and not a menstrual cup these days, I can’t understand.
I just got off the phone with my mother and felt the need to say, “Thank God I am not woman.” twice during separate parts of the conversation. Here we are again a few minutes later with me thinking the same thing. I thought I was pretty well informed about female related things especially because I have two daughters but new bits of knowledge just pop up all the time.
Two Divas One Cup?
Ummmmmm…never noticed any increased smell issues before or after peeing that could be directly related to a wet string. Never even really thought about it being an issue at all. Everything down there is a little damp anyhow during that time, and my period is heavy enough that I always have a pad on as well, since I can’t always get into a bathroom when I’d like.
Because we don’t want to.
What works for you might not work for me or other women, for a variety of reasons, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter does it? Many women use tampons. End. Of.
Maybe some women don’t want to shove a bowl up their hoohah.