The Truth About Tampons and Toxic Shock Syndrome Every Woman Should Know

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Ladies, let's talk about tampons and toxic shock syndrome. I know that this isn't an area of life that we comfortably talk about, let alone on social media, but it's a very important area and can be very seriously fatal to our health. I'm in my late 40s. I've been using tampons my entire life since I first got my period as a teenager. I did not realize that I had so many toxic shock syndromes and many of us do and don't even realize it until just a few

years ago. What is toxic shock syndrome? It's not actually directly coming from the tampon. Although the tampon itself is bleached, sometimes made from rayon, just has absolutely disgusting chemicals in it that can make you very, very sick. But what happens is you get toxic shock syndrome when the bacteria releases toxins into your bloodstream. This first became known in the 80s when there were hundreds of cases of toxic shock syndrome and death to women. And some of the symptoms can occur very very quickly. High fever, dizziness

or fainting, low blood pressure, diarrhea, and vomiting. So you can have some or all of these symptoms and they escalate very very fast. As a woman, I understand the convenience of tampons, which is why I use them for decades. I was a single mom of two kids. I get heavy periods. I used to work in an office, corporate America type of job. You have two little kids. You're a single mom. You have a career. Whatever it is, you're getting up in the morning and you're going

to do what you have to do. Now, what do you do if you have a heavy period? You have to use a tampon, like a super tampon, and sometimes even a pad. But you're also going into corporate America. You may be wearing all sorts of pants and slacks, things of that nature that look so awkward with wearing a huge pad. And it's politically incorrect to talk about being on your period. So, you just kind of have to hide it, make the best of it, and tough

it out and not leak through it. And obviously, sometimes we're in so much pain from wearing a tampon or a super tampon and it moves and you're already sensitive down there. So, what do you do? So, for years and years, I wore tampons. I never wore a pad. This is so awful even for going to sleep. I thought pads were disgusting. So, I just wore a tampon for up to eight hours at a time. A few years ago, I finally started to read. It comes with

like a huge piece of paper with tiny little writing. And there's FDA warnings on all the tampon boxes. And I would use the regular kind like tampacks and all of these types of tampons. And I finally read the warning labels on toxic shock syndrome. And I was like, "Holy smokes, every time I'm on my period, the throwing up, the dizziness, the fever, all of the things on there are actually not flu-l like symptoms. They're toxic shock syndrome, and you could die from it. I didn't even

realize to use organic tampons back then. I didn't realize you could buy organic tampons. I highly doubt they were available in the 80s and '9s. Today, I still have to handle, right, heavy periods, things like that. But I switched. I will use an organic cotton kind of pad all day long. If I have to leave the house and have absolutely no option, I will use an organic tampon for as little as possible and then take it out and forget about it. Yes, we have so many

difficulties as women with our hormones and our periods and pregnancies and all of these other things. And I know that it's not very aesthetic and looks better to wear tampons than it does a pad, but it's really not worth our health. If you don't know enough about the symptoms of toxic shock syndrome, watch some videos on it. Read your tampon box and then consider some alternative method.

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