The Tampon Experiment

Hi world! Ok this post is totally not guy friendly lol! 

Truth be told, I have been curious of the functionality of tampons for the longest time. The idea of literally stuffing something in your lady parts to momentarily stop the bleeding sounds good right? Unfortunately, the usage of tampon is not widely accepted in Malaysia? Even my mom has some funny concerns like...

"Girl! If you use tampon, you're gonna lose your virginity!!"

Of course, I was never bothered with that wtf! I have a whole set of different definition to "losing my virginity" than my mom's. Honestly, if my future husband is gonna mind the fact that I've stuffed some cotton in and retreat on his voyage, I clearly married the wrong husband lol.

Anyway, I have always wanted to try it out but I have no particular reasons to try it until...

Desperate times call for desperate measures

I was about to go for a vacation in Avillion, Port Dickson which has like super nice pools and beach. I am not gonna pay THAT amount of money to be wetting my feet only. So I just went heck it and decided to try it on before my PD trip. I went through quite a lot of preps before buying because with the lack of advertisements, I don't even know what tampon brands are there. Hence...

Step 1: Crazy amount of Google 

It's not exactly like pad... Pad involves sticking it on and you're done.

Tampons involves insertion which I deem way complicated than pads. So I did a lot of searching online trying to find tips but OMG the more I Google, the scarier it seems. The risk of TSS seems to be very overly emphasized everywhere. But there are some helpful blog posts out there. I think blog posts are WAY helpful than WikiHow!!

Step 2: Get help

I resorted to Dayre for help because the community there is very different and quite female dominant. Or at least my followers are mostly females. The people there are very nice and less judgy so I just comfortably asked for help there.

I got quite some useful tips!

Hop over to my Dayre to read more comments yo!

The best part is that I can actually ask them some questions back so whatever question marks I had in my head can be cleared. 

Step 3: Actual purchasing

After a while of struggles, I somehow understand that there are two types of tampons. There's some with applicator and there's some without! Applicator is actually a plastic tube that covers the entire tampons that aids insertion and significantly cleaner because our hands will not get bloody trying to stuff the cotton in. 

The pink-ish case is the applicator

I got the one with the applicator but because of a very stupid reason lol. The one with applicator is more expensive so I get lesser tampons with the same price haha. I considered what if I hate tampons and I'll end up with a big box of it. So I choose the one with lesser pieces per box. But subsequently, I think the applicator is A GENIUS DESIGN! So convenient! Will share about it more later.

The most discussed brand online is Tampax and Playtex but Tampax is quite difficult to find so I just settled with Playtex.

The box

Brief description of the tampons.. like normal packaging 

The inside is actually sticks of individually packed tampons

Step 4: Trying

Frankly, the main concern of females is that it's very hard to put in cause of the lack of lubrication.

To me, the blood is actually lubricative enough! haha! Sorry very TMI but for my post to be informative, it's gonna be very TMI lol. The thing is, with the applicator, you're literally "injecting" the tampon in.

Got some picture demonstration WITHOUT the actual lady part:

Cleary you have to take it out from the packaging 

Then you hold it like this. Hold it between your thumb and middle finger while position you index finger at the thinner end for "injecting"

Next, insert the thicker end in WHILE YOUR FINGERS STAY IN SUCH POSITION. Push it all the way in until your finger touches the lip of your vajayjay i.e. when the thicker tube is completely in

When the thicker part is completely in, push your index finger to "inject" the tampon

The more you push, you'll feel a pressure from the tampon going into your body

When the whole of the thinner tube was pushed in, the applicator will feel loose and you can gently pull it out. And taadaa the tampon stays inside of you while the applicator comes out

A tampon!

I'm actually pulling the string here quite strongly just to prove that the string is rather intact and won't snap easily

So it's really easy and all you have to do is calm down and relax. Don't force it.

Step 5: Removal

Removing is hard because your uterus wall is gripping on to the tampon and the soaked tampon will expand itself. Pulling the string itself you'll feel some tension. So you have to mentally relaxes the muscles by just... relaxing lol. Then take it out by yanking it a little. Don't worry, a lot of yanking is needed to actually break the string.

And I was actually worried of the shape when it came out. Cause I was expecting a flower shape or something but it went in tube shaped and came out the same shape but expanded and bloody. Pretty damn gross by the way... Not for ones with weak hearts! LOL

On the left is a tampon before used

On the right is when I soaked it in a pile of water haha

Actually it'll come out somewhat this size only. No flower shape or whatsoever 

But it is a flower structured cotton lol

Conclusion!

I think the Regular one is pretty insufficient cause leakage will happen on the heavier days. After like 4 hours or sort the leakage will start. So if I were to recommend, I will suggest the Super one instead. There isn't additional difficulties putting it in or taking it out so might as well go for the one with higher absorbency.

And yes I swim around with the tampon on and it's totally ok! No leakage or uncomfortable-ness throughout the swimming session, So it's really a great alternative to anyone who wanna swim but don't wanna dye the pool red wtf!

Oh on a daily basis, there isn't any sort of discomfort if you did the insertion right. Fortunately, even on my first try I didn't put it in wrongly so I LITERALLY FELT NOTHING! So if you're concern that you'll feel funny with it, fret not, it's really gonna be as if you're not on your period. But if you're really concern, add a pad or liner on the first few trials until you're completely in control with the tampons.

Okay I guess that's all I could share about my tampon experience and I am afraid that I missed some details out so if you do need some clarification, please leave a comment and I will reply when I see it lol.