- I'm a little worried about this one.
Have you ever smelled somebody else's period odor?
Hi everybody, my name is Dr Leslie.
I'm a family medicine doctor who works in both primary care
and delivering babies.
I'm here with Seventeen to talk to you
about whether what you've been learning on TikTok
is true or not.
I see a lot of videos about people saying,
"Hey, I started my period.
"I'm gonna make this concoction of all sorts of stuff,
"eat it right now and my period will go away."
And I just don't know what sort of concoction of food
somebody could consume that would cause that to happen.
- All right, so I saw someone's TikTok
saying that if you use lemons
and you squeeze them into a shot with Tajin,
it basically cut off your period, so.
Okay, so I'm putting in my last one.
An update on the whole lemon shot thing, it worked for me.
I was supposed to start my period yesterday but I didn't,
and it's today already and still don't have it,
so it worked.
And it's because lemon is rich in vitamins
and it also has citric acid,
which kinda helps delay your period or even stop it.
Just do that when you don't want your period.
- Okay, so taking a lemon shot before your period,
will that cause your period to be late
or will it stop it from happening?
I can find absolutely no connection
between a shot of lemon juice
and when your period will start.
If your period is very late,
I would recommend maybe going and talking
to your medical provider.
It's probably not lemon juice that caused that.
Okay, interesting.
Now, if I watch something that says
that an ingredient like citric acid and period delay,
I'm gonna look up in my medical database
citric acid and period delay, or stopping periods,
because I don't want there to be some study out there.
I've never heard that before.
I have found no data suggesting that citric acid
could delay or augment when your period happens.
If you are worried about your period
or you would like your period to be less bothersome
or come less often, talk to your medical provider about that
because we have certain types of medications that can help.
(quirky music)
What does your period color mean?
I think that this is actually pretty good.
So, having darker, browner or sometimes darker in color
period blood can be just some older blood
or at the beginning or end of someone's period,
it si quite normal to have those colors
of your period blood,
and so I don't want people to be super concerned
if they see brown blood instead of bright red.
Bright red blood usually means it's fresher
or quicker flowing.
That's actually pretty true.
So when somebody is maybe on their heavier day,
they might notice that the bleeding is more red in color.
So, bright pink.
You know, I think that bright pink period blood
can be multiple different things.
Sometimes people might notice pink period bleeding
if maybe they're at the end or beginning of their period
and it's mixed with some discharge or something like that.
White period blood.
You know, usually bleeding isn't white, so.
So if you have whitish discharge,
it's usually your discharge, not bleeding.
If there is anything
that you have questions or concerns about,
seriously, snap a photo
and then bring it in with you to the doctor.
We see this stuff all the time,
so please don't be embarrassed.
All you have to say is,
"Hey, I've got a question about my period blood.
"I did take a photo of it.
"Would you be willing to check it out
"and see if it looks okay?"
I do that stuff all the time,
so please please don't be afraid to ask about it,
describe it and show us a photo if you have concerns.
This video's, I'm a little worried about this one.
Okay, let's see what they have to say.
I just don't like other people commenting
on how other people's body smells.
That makes me feel sad.
- Do you think other people can smell your period blood?
Here's your daily dose of health class.
You know when you're in gym class or yoga class
and you get a whiff of your own period blood
and you think, "Can other people smell it too?"
Well, you're not alone.
Even though we each have our own unique scent,
menstrual blood in itself doesn't have an odor at all.
It's just blood and tissue.
But when mixed with naturally occurring bacteria,
it smells a little less than fresh.
If you're worried about other people
smelling your period blood, just think about it.
Have you been able to smell
if another girl was on her period?
Probably not.
We notice our scent
'cause we're more self conscious about our odors,
but don't worry.
It's pretty unlikely that other people
will be able to smell it.
- Blood does have a scent.
It's usually not very strong, but it does,
and sometimes period blood can develop a scent to it.
But I think the general message here is pretty spot on.
Have you ever smelled somebody else's period odor?
Usually not.
And so I think that people tend to worry a lot
about how they smell, but it's really not something
that we often can smell on other people.
It can be really hard for people to recognize,
"Hey, this is normal."
It's normal to have odor related to a period.
It's normal to have some odor related to discharge.
That's okay, for the most part.
And having that odor doesn't mean
that a bunch of other people can smell it.
(surprised tone rings three times)
- Oh, we're 100% gonna talk about
what happens when you leave
your cooter stick in your punani for far too long.
So first of all,
your kitty cat canal is only three or four inches long.
So if anybody ever asks if you are shallow,
you can say, well, parts of you are.
At the end of that four inches is a wall,
meaning your cervix.
Unless you're pushing babies out, that thing is airtight,
except for the fluids that come in and out of it.
Things getting stuck or lost is hard to do.
That being said, if you stick a piece of cotton up into you,
you gotta realize you gotta take it out
'cause it can grow bacteria.
If you just let it fester in there,
bacteria can grow on it
and cause something called toxic shock syndrome,
which is basically bacteria just going into your bloodstream
and wreaking havoc on you.
Truly don't know why people use tampons.
Shout out to all my divas out there
because the cup slaps.
- Oh no.
Oh my gosh.
Toxic shock can be very bad.
Let's talk a little bit about leaving your tampon in.
I think that the person who started this video
who said, "Oh my gosh, leaving my tampon in for 14 hours."
Yeah, that's a little long.
Leaving your tampon in can be something
that can potentially cause pretty severe health effects.
It's rare, but it can happen.
And that's right, it's called toxic shock syndrome.
And to prevent that from happening,
you want to make sure that you are changing your tampon
every four to eight hours.
Try not to leave one in for a full day.
The vagina is this contained space,
so your tampon can't go up through your vagina
into your abdominal cavity or anything.
But it can get lost, and what I mean is that a tampon
can get pushed up maybe back next to your cervix
in a place that you can't really feel.
And so, you may not realize you have a tampon in,
and sometimes people will actually put another tampon in
thinking they don't have theirs in
if it got pushed up near their cervix.
So I would try to really make sure
you're keeping a mental tab on,
"Do I have a tampon in right now?"
If you can't feel it, you gotta get in there.
You gotta reach, you gotta feel for it.
Try to feel for your cervix,
which is kind of this hard little circle
with a dot in the middle,
and you can sweep your finger around that
to see if there's a tampon there.
If you're ever worried that you have a tampon
that's stuck in and you can't get it out,
come see your healthcare professional.
We can do an exam and we can get anything out.
If you leave a tampon in too long,
if that tampon collects a bunch of bacteria,
it can cause toxic shock syndrome,
which is this really scary infection actually
that can lead to these toxins being produced
that can cause just really severe illness.
Things like vomiting, fever, rash all over your body,
and a lot of times, people are hospitalized for it.
So make sure you keep an eye on your tampons
if you have them in.
Okay, "so fellas, if your girl's like mine."
Right, so people can experience different types
of period symptoms.
"Here are some of the hacks", they say.
"Get some flowers", sure.
If people like flowers, get 'em.
Okay.
I would say, for foods, I would just ask the person
what they like to eat on their period
and maybe get them those foods.
"Painkillers", sure.
You could do something like an Ibuprofen or Tylenol.
Ibuprofen especially can be helpful with period cramps,
so that can be something you can try,
as long as somebody doesn't have any reason to not take it.
Great.
I mean, I would love that.
That's great.
I think if someone's on their period and not feeling well,
do whatever you can for them,
whatever they need and ask for,
that'd be really nice.