it's time to talk about something that we get asked about all the time in our
groups or in our emails and our Instagram DMs and actually didn't realize how
common it was and that is not being able to use a tampon I actually had no idea
that there was a large group of people out there who cannot wear tampons and
it's not because they have a cultural stigma about inserting something into
their bodies it's more that they just can't when you ask people why they can't
use a tampon a lot of times their answer is simply that it hurts or that it's
uncomfortable and then when you really drill it down some people find that they
fall out it's drying it's rigid it rubs them raw and it's just not
comfortable for most of our lives most of us didn't know that cups existed
some of you might just now be finding out that cups exist and rightfully should
be kind of pissed because it's been a secret to everyone and cups are just
frankly more comfortable than tampons so what I did is I went into the "Put A Cup
In It" community where we have over 13,000 members and I looked through and searched
for people talking about tampons so giving you that perspective that these
are cup users talking about why they can just a cup and why tampons didn't work
for them that would give you some idea of what we're coming from one of the
things that came up when people said they couldn't use a tampon is that the
tampon actually wasn't staying in place so this is a tampon it is a plastic
applicator version and it looks like a Super we want to show you kind of what's
going on when you are
putting in it so most of us sort of start here and we just sort of let it
shoot up but what happens for a lot of tampon users that I'm learning is that
the tampon does not stay in place and it is expelled during either regular
activity or during actual physical exercise squats or something of that
nature and these tampon users just could not find any sort of tampon that would
stay in place so if they were sneezing if they were walking if they were
working out the tampon was making its way out of
their body obviously this is not going to be an effective way of absorbing
their menstrual fluid so they need an another option and the reason that cups
stay in place more or better or in spite of the activity is that they're just
worn differently but with a cup it's pretty easy to see that it makes this
seal inside the vagina and if it's the right cup for you it should stay in
place despite all of that movement and that muscle that you're using some
tampon users were finding that their tampons were being expelled while they
were having bowel movements or while they were even just peeing and within our
community there were lots of people who responded that tampons would not stay
put and cups did one of the complaints that goes right along with people just
saying simply that tampons hurt them and that's why they couldn't wear them is
that tampons are very rigid they're compressed cotton and this is a regular
non-organic
what brand is this I couldn't even tell you what brand this is this is a regular
tampon and it does not bend it does not flex with your body so if you put the
tampon in and especially before it makes any absorbing action happen if you're
moving around chances are it's either rubbing or you
can feel it in place and that's one of the reasons people find them
uncomfortable and we'll go back to cups and say that as long as you find the
right cup for you you should not feel your cup while you're wearing it that is
one of the biggest things that we hear from people who switch to cups is that
they find their period is so much more comfortable because they don't notice
the cup is inside of them and that's because as you're moving these silicone
cups or these TPE cups just sort of move with your body so if you're moving
to the side the cup is moving with you and it's not it's not rubbing and it's
not pushing against anything because it's along for the ride and then again
the silicone will warm to your body's temperature TPE which is the cup that's
in here actually really molds to your body even a little bit better than
medical grade silicone so you've got two options that stay with you while you
move and despite what those tampon commercials say where they're doing all
these activities and moving around some people actually find that uncomfortable
with the tampon in not everybody but a lot of people do and that's why they're
saying they can't use a tampon because it hurts so we're going to take a quick
little subscription break Me and Virginia would love to have you hit that little
subscribe button on our YouTube channel that way when we make new content you
get it right away so hit the subscribe make sure your little alarm dingy thing
is on so you get a notification and you'll be watching our videos as soon as
they come out thanks. So here we are at my favorite reason to switch to a cup:
The dryness that tampons cause. A lot of times people say they can't wear
tampons it's not that they physically can't it's not that it doesn't work for
them or not that it causes too much pain to wear it's just that it's flat-out
uncomfortable because it's drying them out and tampons are absorbing whatever
is in your body whether it's the menstrual blood or it's absorbing your body's
natural moisture and we have that moisture for a reason our bodies are
creating this - to clean everything out to make us more comfortable it's that
self-cleaning oven that we all talk about not to put things in and not to
take things out and tampons they are made of these rayon fibers they are
absorbing everything in there if you're having a light day and you put in this
tampon it's absorbing probably all of your moisture and that just creates
an uncomfortable environment and enough that some people just feel the pain just
from having it there but even if they're not feeling that dryness discomfort or
even know that that's the discomfort they're feeling
you better believe if you take out a try tampon you will know I think there's
some sort of bonding experience between tampon users or former tampon users when
you talk about this because it is so uncomfortable it's like removing
sandpaper just imagine this covered in sandpaper just removing sandpaper out of
your vagina it's a universal experience we've all had to remove a dry tampon
either because we just didn't have much flow that day or because we peed on the
string and we decided it was uncomfortable and we took it out too
early that's why cups are so awesome it doesn't matter if you are filling this
thing with buckets every six hours or if this is down here when you remove your
cup it does not matter when the cup is inside it is neither absorbing or adding
anything to your whole vaginal flora it just sits there and collects the flow
when it's time to remove whether it is full or not when you remove it it is
going to be pain free and completely comfortable the only thing that would
ever cause pain when you're removing a cup is just pulling it without breaking
the seal so again we want to remind you break the seal pull it down dump it
and you should have no pain whatsoever whether it's spotting or regular total
full buckets of blood so now let's talk about painful insertion when I always
heard people say they can't use tampons I actually just assumed they couldn't
insert a tampon on whether it be because they feared putting something inside
their vagina at a young age or it was a cultural stigma or they actually have
something like vaginismus or whatever that caused them to have such pain
because of the tightness of their canal or their perceived issues where they
can't put something in their body this is a good time to remind you that you
can wear tampons or cups if you are a virgin please see the video I will link
about the hymen myth it's always important to teach people about
You can use these if you're a virgin you can use them if you're young cups or
tampons of course I want to have you switch to a cup but don't let that scare
you away from using internal protection so when you're putting in the cup if
it's a plastic applicator it's quite smooth and it probably won't be that
uncomfortable but I do still hear people say that they can't if you're using a
cardboard applicator which is a little more eco-friendly not that much it's
still wrapped in plastic but it's better those things hurt like a mother they were just
I think they're actually worse than applicator-less tampons when I
really think about it now applicator-less tampons are just the tampon and you
would insert digitally a lot of our overseas readers are saying that tampons
are hard to put in and I'm inferring that they're using applicator-less tampons
because that's typically what's available. In the US if you're buying
tampons chances are they're plastic you may be cardboard buying applicator-less
tampons is hard in the US but if you're using an applicator-less tampon
it's going to be dry going in that's going to cause a lot of discomfort If you're
using a cardboard applicator it just fucking hurts and if you're using a
plastic applicator and you're experiencing pain it may not be the size
of this it may be that as it's going in you're noticing the discomfort or it's
going in the wrong angle and with an applicator you don't know where you're
shooting it basically you're just kind of blindly shooting a tampon into your
vagina you don't know where it's gonna land and if it's been uncomfortable and
you're using an applicator tampon that could be one thing to consider or crazy
thought- switch to a menstrual cup because you know exactly where it's
going so when you put in your cup and we have all sorts of videos about this
including one that I'll link in the video description about how to insert a
cup you're going to fold it to make it smaller and we really like the punch
down fold because it's more narrow it's more on the size of the tampon and you
can really keep control of where if when it opens and you know exactly where it's
going you're putting it in it should be below the cervix and that's where you
want it to be and with the tampon it could be any which angle causing you
know pain or discomfort some of the people even said that they could tell
that the tampon was rubbing up against their cervix but sounds again like some
of the sandpaper in your cervix so this is a lot of talking but I thought it was
something we haven't really covered on our channel and something that we get
asked a lot I love to have videos that we can point people to when they ask a
question and we'll have a blog post along with this was some of the input
that we received from our community where people explain why that tampons
didn't work for them but cups had worked beautifully you know I'm totally
shocked by the actual reason that people said tampons didn't work for them
because I had an assumption in my head that it was about insertion and it was
not that at all dryness just general discomfort pain
some people even complained that whatever was in the tampon was giving
them icky pain which is a personal experience of mine but wasn't a big
enough one to cover in this video so again if you said you can't use tampons
or you feel like you can't use tampons there's a very good chance you can use a
menstrual cup successfully we want to help you do that make sure you take our quiz
look back on our channel for resources if you need help so that's it for me and
Virginia- we want to thank you so much for watching this video and if you can
take just a moment make sure you like leave a comment let us know your
questions we also love to hear if you were one of those people who couldn't
use a tampon and you switched to a cup and give our channel a subscribe that
way you know when our content's coming at you thanks for being part of our
community. we're uterus twins you're going to fold
it to make it smaller more like *laughs* another huge complaint *truck noise* -fucking truck- road noise... trucks...
don't they know I'm filming a tampon video... go away