To think you can't swim when you have a period?

[lostinmiddlemarch]

Just that. How can it possibly be done?

I couldn't, even with tampax super plus.

not until I went on the pill. Certain days I'd bleed through super plus in 30mins

I've been there OP, I once used two tampons for swimming but now I have my beloved mirena coil and periods are a hazy memory.

When I started my periods, my mother handed me a box of Tampax and a load of pads, and said to work out what suited me best, but, "Remember you swim a lot" - I did, at least 3 times a week. The only thing which kept me from swimming was a premenstrual headache, and that was fine for years. However, 3 decades on, overweight (not swimming quite so often) and perimenopausal, I am really not comfortable swimming on the first two days of my period - tranexamic acid makes the difference between changing every hour and every two hours. I have been in the water straight after changing, but I don't have the confidence to do a hard swim for a full hour. I take it slower and get out sooner. OTOH, there's no chance of me going in for a swimming gala these days, so who cares?

I used to swim one and a half kilometres every other day. Just put one in just before you swim and change it when you have finished.

Fate I have no idea if this would work but the link below is to a new range of "period pants" which are intended to be worn without tampons or towels. The pants themselves absorb the flow.

If your daughter wears shorts type swimwear (or skirted swimwear ) she could try wearing a pair of these underneath the swimming costume.

I've never tried these (no need for them now ) but it might work.

www.shethinx.com/

In my experience water stops the bleeding, hence you can have a bath without it filling with blood. I can't use tampons and swam competitively for years, just put my knickers and a pad on between races.

Seren If knickers and pads under a swimsuit works then the American "period pants" should too.

Easy to say Pang, and years ago I might well have said it too.

However, I have now experienced the flooding often associated with the peri-menopause (approach of the menopause) and believe me nothing stops it at all.

FATEdestiny, please don't worry that she might not ever be able to use them. I believed I couldn't when, as a teenager, I used my first one so I could swim on holiday. It hurt like you wouldn't believe because I could just never get the position right. I just thought Id never be able to swim while I was on. As I got a bit older and realised a bit more about the anatomy there and how it worked (through exploration etc) it became so much easier. By 16 everything was fine! Hope it works out for her.

Tampax pearl expand widthways not lengthways I find them better than the standard tampax. They're like lil-lets with an applicator.

Of course you can should actually be of course I can

Periods can change. I happily swam for years with tampax but hitting the peri menopausal flooding kept me near a toilet for 2 hours once loosing more blood than a Mc years earlier. Not nice. Not manageable like Topseyt

Mirena coil and paradise now.

Gave my teen dd 11 tampax pearl and she managed. Not having her life ruled by periods at that age. No way.

You do what you need to op.

Aged 11 she didn't need 11 tampax!