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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand how you can be so ignorant and unaware of the world around you that you still flush wet wipes and tampons down the toilet?

331 replies

A580Hojas · 14/02/2018 18:50

How is it even possible in the information age?

I reckon a huge number of people know they shouldn't do it but flush anyway in the hope they will get away with it and they won't be the one having to dig out any resulting blockage.

Much like the hundreds of thousands of cunts who chuck their litter out of car windows - out of sight out of mind.

Gets me down, it does.

OP posts:
HarveyKietelRabbit · 14/02/2018 21:11

hooooch - because I don't want to. I have the lightest 3 day regular periods. I buy a box of own brand non applicator tampons once every 2/3 months for less than a pound. No hassle. No leaks. No mess (a mooncup would be messier). Cheap. Convenient. Flexible. Comfortable.

JacquesHammer · 14/02/2018 21:12

Why wouldn’t you want to try that?

Because not everyone is the same and not everyone can use them Hmm

If you have normal plumbing it's fine

I’ve just had to pay out for a blocked drain. I can only assume next door’s teen is flushing tampons because nobody in my house is.

Cherrycokewinning · 14/02/2018 21:12

Tbf I suspect tampons have always blocked some loos (the office ones- fair point and I suspect that’s how I learnt not to flush them from stroppy office manager emails!) but I don’t think it’s common. As you say, people always used to when tampon boxes advised. There were 4 women in my house growing up, 1 loo and I never heard of anyone having problems in a residential house (massive shits were a different matter and I recall my dad on the drive way, drain open, breaking them up with a stick Shock)

(They were his)

gamerchick · 14/02/2018 21:12

It wasn’t fine 20 years ago, people just didn’t know any better. Like with a lot of things that were fine years ago and we realise now that actually, they are stupid.

Amanduh · 14/02/2018 21:14

Just to add on the ‘yes tampons do fall out when you sit over the toilet ans have a very very heavy period’ thing. Pretty sure it’s nothing to do with pelvic floor since they’ve done it since I was 14.
Imagine thinking because something doesn’t happen to you it’s not right...

HarveyKietelRabbit · 14/02/2018 21:14

It's not that people 'didn't know any better' we were TOLD by the manufacturers to flush them.

purplesquirrel1 · 14/02/2018 21:14

Everyone should use a mooncup or similar. I wish I'd known about them earlier. It's even helped with the pain!

Cherrycokewinning · 14/02/2018 21:16

Is such a lie that mooncups help with pain.

JacquesHammer · 14/02/2018 21:17

Everyone should use a mooncup or similar

Not everyone can, I’m sure you realise...

NannyR · 14/02/2018 21:22

Menstrual cups don't suit everyone. I'd love to use one (I use cloth pads already), I've tried two different brands, lots of practice inserting and removing it and I just can't get on with it - it gives me a crampy, achy feeling and I find it quite uncomfortable to remove.
So, although I think they are a fantastic idea, they are not the answer for everyone.

WheelyCote · 14/02/2018 21:22

I think it's ignorant to ASSUME that everybody is upto speed with everything OP. I'm sure if we had a chat I'd find something that you hold as out of date information that you've never thought to question.

Bonez · 14/02/2018 21:24

I've always been mortified at the thought of flushing them in case they caused a blockage or they didn't flush properly for whatever reason and someone had to see my blood soaked tampon floating. I know the boxes say you can but I chose to ignore it for these reasons alone over a decade ago.

Trills · 14/02/2018 21:24

When I was learning about tampons, the instructions were to flush them.

Not an applicator or wrapping, but the cotton wool bit, that was what you were supposed to do.

So I wouldn't be surprised at all if someone my age (early 30s) still considered that the right thing to do.

Cherrycokewinning · 14/02/2018 21:24

I’m annoyed that I can’t use my mooncup and it cost TWENTY SQUID

OutyMcOutface · 14/02/2018 21:25

A lot of people probably don't care. It doesn't help that wipes are marketed as flushable. You'd never flush a hanky down the loo because it's not flushable and I doubt such a thing would even occur to most people as an option for hanky disposal.

Sprinklestar · 14/02/2018 21:25

Another one here who was taught that tampons were flushable and only read on here that they shouldn’t be. Wipes, well, I’d say it’s pretty obvious they shouldn’t be flushed but I’ve just checked the ones we have in the house right now and one says don’t flush, one says flushable and the other says flush one at once!

OutyMcOutface · 14/02/2018 21:26

Also to the moon cups-really not reccomended if you are using an IUD.

VioletCharlotte · 14/02/2018 21:27

It was only in the last few years that I realised you shouldn't flush tampons.
When I first started using them as a teenager I was told they were flushable.

CaptainBrickbeard · 14/02/2018 21:30

Washable sanitary towels have revolutionised my life - I so glad not to have to think about disposal of sanitary products at all anymore. For me, disposables stopped being an option when I found it hard to buy any that weren’t scented aka an express route to severely itchy and uncomfortable nethers. However, when I started using tampons in the 90s the packaging definitely said not to flush them so I never did. Flushable wipes though - I believed what they said! Then our toilet blocked up. They really shouldn’t be allowed to put that on the packaging.

upsideup · 14/02/2018 21:32

Cherrycokewinning

Switching to menstrual cups definately helped me with cramping
Might not help everyone but it is definately not a lie that they help with pain, they have helped lots of women.

Sarahh2014 · 14/02/2018 21:36

I've always flushed tampons.not the cardboard applicator though

Cherrycokewinning · 14/02/2018 21:36

How? The pain is your womb liking shedding. How can a moon cup in your vagina help that?

Cherrycokewinning · 14/02/2018 21:36

Lining not liking

ChocolateWombat · 14/02/2018 21:40

There are all kinds of things that some people know about and others don't. It's life and this is one of them.
Unless government itself or the sewerage companies launched a big campaign to improve people's understanding, people who started menstruating during the time when flushing was common and advised, won't be up to date on the info. How would they be, when they don't read the instructions or the box of a product they learned to use many years ago.

These threads will run for years - loads of people say MN is where they first heard this info. Most people aren't on MN and as how you dispose of your sanitary products isn't a hot topic of conversation, the info is very slow in getting out to people.

Feel outraged if you like OP, but you'd be better putting your energy into lobbying the sewage companies or government to put the information out to people better, rather than berating people for not knowing something they didn't know they didn't know. And OP, if you are an environmental campaigner, I hope your approach is better and more persuasive than it is on this thread, because if we are relying on your approach of berating for environmental improvement, we are doomed.

JacquesHammer · 14/02/2018 21:41

Threads about flushing tampons come around quite regularly and I am always glad to see them in the hope that people who didn’t know they shouldn’t flush tampons, now do and can make a change!