Sorry to be so graphic - and I hope I am not being offensive to anyone, this is not my intention.
My female friend when in Soho, London, went into a shop to buy some tampons. I don’t know how the topic came up, but my friend is very open and honest in her communications, even in regard to bodily functions - the assistant mentioned that it was more unusual to see women buying tampons. He said it was mostly men around there.
So my friend not understanding what the hell he was talking about asked him what he was talking about - he said it was gay men who bought them. She could not fathom how a gay man would use a tampon so the friend she was with explained. She said she felt so naive for not knowing when she told me this story - but I said I had no idea either. Actually, I said - but women just let it dribble out after sex, we don’t use tampons in this way - so she explained that it was for stopping skid marks.
So I guess my question is: how true is this - I’m finding it a little hard to believe?
Just an uneducated guess, but people who are engaging in anal sex (not that I’m suggesting this is exclusively a male homosexual trait, or the sole behaviour of homosexual men) tend to use a lot of artificial lubricant (so I’ve heard) - maybe this has something to do with it.
Off topic: tampons are very effective in the backcountry for stopping nosebleeds.
-Apoptosis
I have heard about male submissives who wear a tampon analy when their female dominatrix has her period, to somehow share in her suffering or somesuch. I also heard it can be painful as the tampax can adhere to the sides of the anus which is far drier than the vagina. Sounds like all very unpleasent to me, but nothing to do with homosexuality.
What shop was this? I’ve never heard of men buying tampons for their own use before… maybe I’ve missed a trick.
Sorry, I don’t know the name of the shop - all I know is that it was in Soho, London. Is that where you are from?
Maybe he was making a rather obscure joke?
Is this practice supposed to take care of all the santorum problems I’ve been reading about?
Hmmmm…WAG, but since the store sells a lot to gay guys, the area must be popular for gays and casual sex and/or prostitution may be the norm. A tampon would be a quick, relatively easy way to check if your prospective partner is “clean” as well as being a quick way to clean up afterwards.
Sigh. I hate to be the one to post this, the source of it being rather :dubious: at best, but here goes:
After a particularly “rough” night of sex (i.e. partner had a large member) a former gay cow-irker claimed that he had trouble keeping his fecal matter in, and needed a tampon to prevent anal leakage.
To bring down the room a bit, according to a true-crime book about the Bianchi-Buono murders, one of their girlfriends had to use tampons anally because of the terribly rough anal sex semi-forced on her…
Captain Bringdown
I’ve got to admit to having been a purchaser of tampons, but after reading this I’ll have to raid my girlfriends supply or make seriously sure I am not in the vicinity of Soho (or in Brighton :)) next time.
Not that I get through a lot. I’m a mountaineer and they are a recommended item for your first aid pack in winter. The reason?
Well, if you take a fall and only partly succeed in your ice axe arrest, there is a reasonable chance of you inpailing yourself on the pick en route! So if you survive you whip out your tampon and you’ll find it fits perfectly in the hole and stops you bleeding to death. Damn useful I say, although hoping I’ll never need to find out.
BTW I have never…er…you know and not curious!
Wow re. the Ice-pick. The things one learns on the SDMB. Sort of pity no-one told Leon Trotsky!
bw - Tuckerfan I think “cow-irker” is my favourite typo for a while!
According to Gay Health it is not very safe to do as it can cause similar reactions as toxic shock syndrome.
Unfortunately, Googling brought up thousands of porn sites rather than anything factually interesting. However, from knowing many a gay man and watching a few gay adult movies, I have never heard of this practice. Perhaps, as mentioned, they are used to absorb leakage. As for a pleasure derived from it - can’t see it (personally).
Off subject:
notquitekarpov, you are very correct in that they are brilliant to have in first aid kits, as are pads for similar reasons.
**notquitekarpov **, iceclimber from Angola.
I find it very hard to belive you would want to shove something up into a bleeding wound. When I last hit myself with my ice-axe, I just taped it with a regular band-aid and applied a lot of pressure to the wound to stop the bleed. Your method would reopen the wound as soon you remove the tampon.
At a military surplus store some guy was telling me that soldiers often carry tampons as an emergency solution to a bullet wound. Was he just pulling this civilian’s leg?
Well, they are designed to soak up and retain lots of blood, so I can see how that would make sense.
This whole thread has just got to make me say…
:eek:
T. Mehr - if you only need band aid you really haven’t had serious ice axe wound!
Like you I have nicked myself a few times with no problems - the tampon first aid patch is for the worst case full depth wound.
You simply don’t take it out, get the hell off the mountain and get yourself to a doctor!!
Balduran - your information was correct too, according to my bro’ in the Territorial Army back in the UK.
Hey notquitekarpov,
I think a better alternative to carrying tampons is to work on one’s self arrest technique. I’m having trouble visualizing how someone could bung up a self arrest so badly as to actually impale themselves on their pick.
-Apoptosis
I’ve heard of this many times, about (mainly gay males) having to use tampons after extensive anal sex has ruined their sphincter muscles. I’ve never been sure how true - ie in terms of how widespread - this problem is. I’ve heard that if the sphincter is damaged it’s permanent and you can’t tighten it up again - is this just an UL from Victorian moralists?
I don’t know if having to use tampons for anal leakage is a permanent thing or not.