I have smelled it on other women, but not often. I have no problem believing Audrey Levins’s account given that some people naturally give off stronger smells than others, and some people are have an especially sensitive sense of smell.
Apparently I am. I thought they were all the same but the ones I use are disposable and fit over your cervix. They are like a diaphram. When I googled the brand name “divacup” I saw that no, that would never work.
Heh, when I was in high school (back in the '90s), our dispensors still had those things-and that’s what the nurse would give you if you didn’t have a quarter. I’m guessing she was too old to know about the sticker-pads.
Add me to the list of women who can always feel a properly inserted tampon. Not painful, but a constant near-itch of awareness. And my gyn assures me that my equipment is completely normal structurally speaking.
I only use them on the rare occasions that I’m going swimming, or have such a heavy period that I’ll leak through a pad alone in less than an hour.
Body odor I can understand as a reason why to use a tampon, though it’s not like it’s a gross smell or anything. But how is a used tampon any cleaner in a trashcan than a used pad? They’re both absorbant material with blood et al soaked into it. 
I don’t like tampons. They hurt going in, and I can feel them the whole time. I always leak, meaning I have to wear a pad underneath, and since I usually only use tampons when I want to swim, that’s impossible. And I’m afraid I’ll end up pulling that little string off them during removal and be stuck with a wad of cotton up there. Seriously, I have to pull so hard to get them out, I’m terrified of the string breaking.
So I deal with pads.
As DianaG noted, tampons do produce the same smell…once you remove them.
Why do you think I recognized the smell? I noticed it myself when I wore pads; I just didn’t realize til that moment that it might be noticeable to other people.
Granted, me and this girl and her sister were all shoved together in the back of a car which could only comfortably seat two…but still. The idea that anybody could ever smell my pad? That was enough for me. I’m sure this girl had showered that day, and changed her pad as often as necessary; I’m not accusing her of anything.
But diapers smell, so why wouldn’t menstrual pads? It’s the same thing; one just absorbs urine and feces and the other one absorbs blood. All three substances have a tendency to smell once they’re outside of the human body.
I’m not saying all women who use pads have a problem with odor…I’m just saying I’ve smelled it on another girl and that was enough for me to switch. And I guess I’m one of the lucky ones who have no problem using tampons.
I am a Planned Parenthood employee, and we will DEFINITELY give out a year long prescription for birth control pills without a pelvic exam, if you have a health history without contraindications for doing so. It varies state-to-state and affiliate-to-affiliate. Sometimes the exam is required, not for health reasons, but for funding reasons–that is to say, if you want the state to pay for your pills, the state says we have to give you an annual exam. This changes with the state of the funding and the current political administration.
Anyway, the point is, you certainly can get a prescription for birth control pills without having a pelvic exam, though your particular practitioner might not want to do so. The reason isn’t so much that the exam has any connection to your use of the pills, but as someone else said, it’s a convenient way to get women in the door for the pesky pap once a year. But again, there’s no actual reason for holding BC hostage over a pap, if you have no history of abnormal paps, no sexual history, and no contraindicative health conditions.
For those looking to skip periods, add me to the chorus saying “ask your doctor about tri-cycling with monophasic pills”!
Also, tampons give me the creeps. Softie, washable, terry-cloth-and-flannel pads all the way, baby.
Not to hijack, but why not just have the pelvic exam? You really should do it annually anyway, sexually active or not. Nobody’s excited to get in the stirrups, but really… can’t hurt, might help!
ETA: I’ve *never * had a “normal” pap smear. I had my first pelvic exam when I was 14 (history of cervical, ovarian, and uterine cancers in my family), and I had my first cryo treatment two years before I became sexually active.
You can still benefit from a pelvic exam, even if you’re not worried about STDs!
I can smell when many women I’ve worked with have had their periods. Then again, I have a sensitive sense of smell and that “meaty” smell that women get when they’re menstruating is hard to ignore at times. Doesn’t really matter what you use, though; sometimes it seems like the scent is emanating from your pores and not entirely because of the blood. Scented pads and tampons just make it smell like flowery meaty blood. I use a menstrual cup and it mostly just contains the scent, but it’s still noticeable, even if only marginally so.
Because some women are traumatized by the process, some are at extremely low risk for issues that might show on a pap, and some can’t afford it.
In general, absent discernible risk, we feel it’s better for women to be on birth control if they desire it without the pelvic exam, than to use higher-risk methods or no methods at all, because they can’t or won’t have the exam. In other words, we don’t want the exam to be a barrier to effective contraception, and for some women, it absolutely would be.
I agree, though, that if you have access to routine annual exams, you absolutely should have them performed.
I should note that someone with a similar report of direct maternal history of reproductive-related cancers would be an example of someone ineligible for CoC prescription without a routine exam.
OK, I’m at an away regatta today and I’m on my sixth superplus for the day. I freaking love tampons, there is no way I could’ve gotten by with pads for six hours on a bus.
I had a Planned Parenthood refuse to give me the morning after pill without a pelvic and a pap. Came back abnormal (or inconclusive, I don’t remember, just that I had to go back). Doc I saw then told me that, yeah, a cervix with four-hour-old semen on it will do that, and the other doc should have known that.
I come from a long line of tampon girls. My mother jokes she’s the only baby-boomer woman who never had to wear the belt. My grandmother just handed her tampons when she started, told her she’d get the belt and pads if mom wanted them, but she (grandmom) hated them.
Mom did the same for me. I actually found tampons scary, and wore a pad for one school day on the first day of my first period. Came home crying because it felt gross. Mom handed over the box. Have used them only once or twice since, in emergencies.
My little sister, however, hates tampons and only uses pads. She says they burn.
Since turning 40 I bleed like a mother-fuck. I used to be able to do pads, but now I’m through them in a matter of minutes.
I like the new Tampax cardboard applicators; the plastic ones are (of all brands) are slippery and difficult to maneuver into the “right place.”
Yes, DivaCup DivaCup DivaCup. I’ve been using a cup (first the Keeper then the DivaCup) for about 7 or 8 years and I will NEVER use something as gross as a tampon or pad again. Oh hayell no.
The first time I used the Keeper I had to use pliers to get it out. Because I didn’t know how. You have to do three things: 1) squeeze the cup to make it non-round; this breaks its seal and 2) push with your muscles and 3) pull out and forward, not straight down. This also helps with breaking the seal.
If you do that, it comes out very easily.
Also, to the person who recommended vaseline for getting tampons in: NO NO NO NO!! Never put vaseline in there! It traps bacteria and isn’t water soluable. Use lube if you need to but for god’s sake not vaseline!
My biggest issue with tampons after giving birth was that the damn things KEPT SLIDING OUT! :smack:
And I went up to the MickeyD’s SuperSized “Holy Shit, Your Vaginal Cavity Is Huge Now!” tampons, and the fucking things STILL kept sliding out.
The DivaCup is the shit. I should work for 'em, since I shill the damn thing to tons of women.
I know it’s not for everyone, but I’m thrilled with mine. I can’t imagine every going back to tampons or pads, and it’s going to suck ass when I’m forced to use pads after we have another kid.
That’s mighty obliging, ma’am. Your place or mine? 
I’m curious now… you cannot use the Diva Cup after having x number of kids? Or is there another reason I don’t understand?
I use OB now and then, but lately I’ve been getting the “clean tampon, dirty underwear” more frequent than before. It has to be put in just right, or else it doesn’t work, and I may have lost my touch. 
After giving birty the doctors forbid you to use tampons [or actually insert anything into the vaginal vault] for a number of weeks, and from what I remember of all my goddaughters early days the mother had essentially a month long period after each one. It wasnt a real period, in the endometrial lining shedding but I have no real idea what it would be other than a multitude of stretch tears in the uterous and vagina seeping until it heals? I am sure a doc will be along with the actual info shortly.