What are tampons?

• Well, tampons are just another method of maintaining period hygiene. These are bullet shaped cotton blobs, that are inserted through the vagina, and stay put. The highly absorbent material absorbs all menstrual fluid while it is still inside the body, acting like a plug.

How to select the right tampon?

• If you are a beginner with tampons, I’d advise you start with the ‘Regular’ size (which is usually the smallest size) and select tampons with average absorbency. Once you get the hang of using a tampons, you may change the variant depending on your requirement. e.g. if you are a post-partum woman (woman with kids), you may want to use a larger size (width).

Does it affect virginity?

• LOL. NO. Virginity is related to ‘physical intercourse’ and only if ‘penile insertion’ has broken the hymen will a girl be considered to have lost her virginity. It is a sensitive issue, and thoughts on this vary from culture to culture, and sometimes from family to family too. If you are too concerned with the usage of tampons and its effect on your hymen/ virginity, you may want to talk to your elder sister/ mother before proceeding and see if it is acceptable to use tampons in your family. Or not use tampons at all.

How do you insert and remove tampons?

• Every box of tampons comes with an instruction leaflet with pictorial instructions on how to insert and remove the tampons. If you are using tampons for the first time, the most important thing is to stay relaxed and take a few deep breaths so that the muscles down there are relaxed.

Advantages of using tampons:

• No side leaks.
• You can do just about all activities- from your everyday work to swimming, you can do it all!
• There’s so much less stress on the mind when using a tampon. So much more comfort. Honestly, WHO likes wearing a pad? No one!
• You can wear whetever dress you like, even a white one, and also a bikini- no stains, no pad-lines {Let’s not even talk about period days when you gotta wear ethnic dresses. Ughh!}

Precautions with tampon usage:

• Selecting the right size and absorbency is important. Super absorbent tampons may end up absorbing more fluid than required, and may lead to problems. Since the tampon may absorb even the normal vaginal fluid, it may lead to a pH imbalance.
• Always sanitize your hands before and after handling a tampon.
• Tampons need to be changed every 6-7 hours. That’s the max time you should leave a tampon in your body. Hence it is advisable to not use a tampon overnight (more than 8 hours at a stretch).
• Also, using a tampon on the period days with light flow can again lead to problems like point-1 above- excessive fluid absorption is not good. I restrict tampon usage to the first two days of the period (which are generally the more bothersome ones).