Can a Tampon Get Lost?

Getting your period absolutely doesn’t mean you have to stop doing the things you love for a few days every month. Maybe you have a pool party to go to, a football match to play in, or you just want to lay out on the beach. Enter, tampons!
Tampons are a really great period hack. You insert one into your vagina, and all you see is a string hanging out, and no period blood on your knickers. What a neat solution! But…what about that burning question on a lot of girls’ minds?

Breathe deep. Your tampon cannot get lost inside you. This is because of your anatomy, or the way your body is built. Tampons are held in your vagina. The end of your vagina – which is the channel to your uterus - is closed off by your cervix, which only has a very tiny opening (like the tip of a pencil) to let through things like period blood. This means a tampon cannot pass from the vagina through the cervix into your uterus. So, there’s literally nowhere for a tampon to go! So, can a tampon get lost? Technically, no. It can’t.

Tampons are easy to remove. They have a string attached to them that stays hanging outside your body. The string is yet another assurance that your tampon can’t get lost inside you. When you’re ready to remove your tampon, gently pull on the string, and out comes the tampon! Wrap it and bin it. And voila! You’ve removed your tampon. Easy peasy. No lost tampon.

If your tampon’s string isn’t hanging outside your vagina for you to pull out when you’re ready to remove your tampon, don’t panic. Very infrequently, the string can get folded up inside you. In this sense, the tampon is “lost”. But don’t worry. It’s still up there and you can still get the tampon out. No big deal. It just takes a little more work. Use your fingers to reach into your vagina. Your vagina is only about 7 to 13 cm long. You should be able to feel your tampon up there, grab it, and pull it out.

If you tried and still couldn’t find your tampon, don’t ignore it. Leaving a tampon in for a very long time can cause a bad infection. Go see your doctor for help getting your tampon out. Don’t be embarrassed. Doctors see this kind of thing all the time. It’s better to address your concerns early than to risk infection.

Do you think you forgot to remove a tampon at the end of your period or that there’s one stuck up there? One symptom of a “lost” tampon is a foul vaginal odour. Another symptom of a “lost” tampon is icky, off-coloured discharge, that is possibly tinged with blood.

Here are some tampon-use guidelines to make sure you never forget a tampon inside you:

• Always make sure you take out your tampon before putting another one in. Never put in two tampons at once.
• Be sure to change your tampon at least every 8 hours. In fact, we recommend changing it every 4 to 6 hours, depending on your flow.
• At the end of your period, be sure to take your last tampon out, too. A forgotten tampon is no fun. Plus, you run the risk of infection. If you’re prone to forgetting, set a reminder on your phone.

Wondering what to do after removing a “lost” tampon? Wrap it and bin it like you would any other tampon. Be sure to watch out for any signs of infection, like high fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhoea, or muscle aches. These are signs of a very rare but potentially life-threatening infection called TSS. See your doctor immediately if you develop these symptoms.

If you’re a first-time tampon user, congrats! Using tampons is great. And the risk is very low. Most of the time, you cannot “lose” a tampon inside you. We recommend TAMPAX Pearl Compak Regular for first timers. Their smooth, rounded tip and grip marks make them easy to use. Try one out. Then go enjoy everything you normally enjoy doing – even though you have your period!