I’ve just birthed a fossilised tampon...what do I do?!

[MedicinalGin]

Hello.
I’m so embarrassed about this. Have had loads of weird discharge for the past few days and was getting really worried- suddenly this happened. I feel quite well and everything but could I now have an infection or something? It must have been in there for two weeks.

Do I just presume I will now be fine or should I seek official advice (seriously hoping I don’t have to).

Excuse me while I now go and 🤢

I could not leave mine to its own devices in all good, decent consciousness

Yes, those who are savvy about health guidelines are not good or decent. Gotcha.

And for the OP : if you feel fine and the discharge is settling then you don’t need to do anything.
It likely will settle. I work in sexual health and we see this commonly.
If the discharge continues pop to your GP or local clinic for some swabs

PiperPublick AAAAAARGHHHH! it is a LOO BRUSH! On Mumsnet! The horror! cue lots of pearls being clutched and naice Waitrose smelling salt infused lemon drizzled ham being ingested.

Yes I use anti bac on mine and I give it a special polish for Xmas.

This happened to me. It's horrible, but your body is really good at "cleaning itself" (I know, yuck! sorry). The discharge should start to clear. I had a bath after which seemed to help. Obviously if you get a temperature or the discharge gets worse or any other symptoms of infection then you'd see an out-of-hours doc straight away. But I was fine and I know several other people this happened to and they were all fine too.

I'm now well through the menopause (yay) but I lived in fear of forgetting to remove the last tampon of my period. It never happened, but I can be absent-minded and could never remember for sure whether I'd taken it out or not. Can't understand how that makes me potentially disgusting. Surely I'm not the only one?

Squirt of Toilet Duck, maybe... It has that angled head for convenience!

shirley I did the same as you. Drunk. Put a double in! 7 days later. Grimness.
Its easy to do and I know people in RL who have done it too.

Piper

Doesn't everyone shove some Zoflora up there? SUMMER MEADOW is my fave

3 pages and no-one has mentioned the Pouch of Douglas yet....

I'm going to have to Google...

Those that just leave their vagina's to their own devices as "it's self cleaning". I give up

Oh dear God you're not confusing vagina with vulva are you?

Your vagina is the bit inside. The flaps are your vulva.
make sure you use cif or a brillo on those.

shirley I've done that as well. 8 days later it reappeared. And yes, I'd showered and been to the toilet in that time!

Wire brush and dettol OP

I’ve done it too. Put one in without realising there was already one there and then just kept changing the second one. I had no idea until my gynaecologist found it. It was mortifying, although he did make me laugh by saying “This might be why you’re not getting pregnant”.

@Lovestonap

Honestly, I'm... a bit well endowed down there so takes me about 30 seconds for a once over with some water.

My point is that you do want to make sure the 'lips' have been cleaned - they can sometimes collect discharge

Exdh has to assist me giving birth to a full term 3 week old one. He almost passed out with the smell

I think I must have a very short vagina as there isn’t no way I could get two tampons in there without realising.

I can barely get one in comfortably after 2 vaginal births never mind 2 tampons at once.

Two minutes vulva washing is a quick wank, lets all just be honest with ourselves .

My friend did this once. She came on unexpectedly in the night and put one in then promptly went back to bed and forgot, so when she came on “again” a day later she put a new one in and left the first one. She gave birth to it a while later and was fine. The vagina is pretty good at coping with foreign stuff in it (willies etc), as long as you haven’t washed all the good bacteria away. The blood on the tampon was not exposed to air so unlikely to have festered.

If the discharge increases or starts to really smell then go to your GP but it’ll probably just rebalance itself over the next few days.

I have always found one of these to be useful for clearing blockages in the nethers.

I am awestruck at the idea of two minutes cleaning the vulva. Sounds more like someone has confused washing with masturbation to me. My entire shower is barely two minutes.

@itsnowthewaitinggame

How did he assist you? 😂

I live in fear when I’m drunk on my period of ending up with 2 in.

I’ve always been taught that my foof is self-cleaning, just like my halogen oven.

Negative points for using the word foof though, the MN brigade are out with their pitchforks, burning torches and anatomically correct terminology.

Is it just a blurring of the vulva/vagina words?
Do the advocates of self cleaning do anything to the flappage area?