To be annoyed that Sainsbury's will no longer sell plastic applicator tampons?

[caddywally]

It's not a massive issue at the moment because I can buy them elsewhere, but if other shops follow suit I'm going to be condemned to a life of using pads because I don't get on with non-applicator or cardboard applicator tampons. I can't use menstrual cups, either.

I understand the problem with plastic but don't see why women who rely on plastic applicator tampons should suffer when there is excess plastic everywhere. I already live a fairly eco-friendly life - no car, 1 holiday in the past 10 years, rarely eat meat, most of the stuff I own is second hand (mainly for financial reasons than anything else, admittedly) - and I don't see why I should have miserable periods when there are people whose lifestyles are much worse for the environment than mine. I also don't flush sanitary products down the toilet, which I assumed was common sense. I probably am being unreasonable and should just suck it up for the sake of environment!

but if you can insert a bit of plastic then you can use your finger.

Yes, but if you have short fingers, it can be really difficult to get non-applicator tampons far enough in, even after lots of practice.

We do not all have the same anatomy. We may have longer or shorter fingers, or just not be that dexterous. Vaginas come in all sorts of lengths and angles, and childbirth or other traumas can have permanent effects. Some women have light periods, others are very heavy. Thry could be painfree or cause someone to throw up and pass out from the pain. And pregnancy, childbirth and just age will affect the nature of a woman's periods over her menstruating life. 17 year old me never expected the heaviness and clotting that 47 year old me enjoys each month.

There's not going to be a single type of menstrual product that suits every woman. (There's not really one which suits me for the whole of a single period.) We need to have different options. Of course it's better if they're more environmentally friendly, but most of us make compromises on all sorts of things. I think it's better to gain an understanding of why women prefer certain options over others, why some just can't use some of them, rather than just refusing to stick some of them any more.

Or refusing to stock them any more...

Yabu. Plastic applicator tampons and all single use plastics need to go. You'll have to find a way - just like every woman before about 1990 did.
This ^^

You'll have to find a way

Absolutely. I’ll be reminding every woman with enough disposable income to be stocking up on the products they need. I’ll also be doing my bit in donating a wide variety of san pro to charities.

Someone upthread absolutely hit the nail on the head.

It will be women who will carry the burden of lifestyle and consumer changes we need to make to protect the environment.

I cannot for the life of me understand why supermarkets are starting with tampon applicators, ahead of say, plastic drinks bottles, ready meal trays or unnecessary veg wrapping.

Oh wait, i do. It’s because we NEED sanpro it’s not an option for us to go “nah fuck it, I’ll do without something to capture my menstrual Blood” in the way we can fuck off a Diet Coke or a plastic wrapped tuna sandwich. So they know we’ll have to go with whatever THEY choose for us, and put up with it.

The patriarchy is fucking us all roundly, again, and 95% of women on this thread are all “yeah we need to save the planet”.
Absolutely we do, Susans, but how about we hold men accountable too, rather than just accepting, as always, that women must make sacrifices first, and, as ever, it will be via the medium of our fannies?

I’d be as glad to see plastic applicators go as the rest of you- just as soon as a viable, usable, comfortable alternative that works AS WELL as plastic, is implemented. Because if it were men shoving the bitey cardboard tubes up there, or crying with frustration that they can’t shove a wad of cotton into a deep orifice that doesn’t seem to go the same way as everybody else’s, I fucking guarantee you there would be some 3D printed solution found, that was cost effective, good for the planet, and probably made of fucking grade A NASA tech and diamonds.

"How do cardboard ones bite? They are exactly the same!"

They're NOT the same.
Periods are shit and women's lives shouldn't be made any more difficult than they already are when it comes to tampons.
I couldn't use tampons at all until I discovered plastic applicators.

"just like every woman before about 1990 did. "

Oh yes, just use pieces of cloth and get an infection. Or the sanitary towels they had in the old days with a belt.

Chip thing is you have you change tampons regularly, and the OP describes proper pain when doing so, not just discomfort. Imagine having to go through that several times per day for a quarter or more of every month. As a PP said sex is different, you'll be in a state of arousal with pleasurable hormones flooding your body. Many women will change more tampons each month than the number of times they'll have sex in a month. The pleasure of sex isn't comparable imo to the pleasure derived from reducing a bit of plastic - if it were then men would be eco warriors instead of watching porn

Gwenhwyfar

Same. I didn't find plastic applicator tampons until I was 18 or so and put up with 6 years of pads, which I think are so much less comfortable - I found they leak more often (especially at night), they chafe my inner thighs and feel like wearing a nappy.

I must have gone through boxes of non-applicator or cardboard tampons while trying to make them work, but it always ends with the tampon inserted incorrectly (if at all) and having to be removed immediately, giving my vagina what feels like severe friction burns in the process!

Caddy, I suffered with vaginismus and couldn't deal with cardboard applicators and neither could I do it with my fingers. I can cope with cardboard now, but only because I started with plastic. I'd be still stuck with towels otherwise.

Yes YABU. It's single use plastic of all kinds that are an issue.

A reusable applicator is a great suggestion.

Better still is a fully reusable product (menstrual cup or cloth pads)

I hear you, OP, despite being a CSP user.

The reusable applicators sound good, when you offset the saving on applicator tampons vs plain ones it will eventually pay for itself.

What I wish, is that I had some sort of (reusable) applicator for my JamSponge.

I can't use tampons, and over the years I've really lost use of my hands and fingers for certain activities. This is the main reason I don't use my mooncups or JamSponge.

My CSP is reusable but still needs washing properly, using more water than the JS or cups.

To another PP, yes the cardboard applicators DO sometimes pinch. However, I've also experienced this from plastic before.

We all have different vulvas and vaginas, some are happy with cardboard applicators, some are happy with cups, some are best off with either pads or CSP.

No one is ever going to agree over how to fix these issues though.

Environmental concerns aside, plastic tampon applicators are evil things that pinch you where it hurts. Never liked them.

I wonder if these could be used with the reusable applicator?

imsevimse.co.uk/product/reusable-tampons/

Expensive though. I also don't see how they could be inserted without an applicator?

I'm not sure, but I've tried time and time again and they just don't glide in smoothly without a pinching feeling

Yabu, use lube.

After 40 years of struggling with tampons and mooncups, and failing (those cardboard applicators nip me every time, I can't get the non-applicator ones in, and the mooncup was a bloody disaster, literally), I finally in my fifties found the Tampax Pearl ones, which were so much better. They honestly have made such a difference to me.

Now at 54, still having regular, heavy periods, someone is about to take them away from me? I'm not impressed. Are women just an easy target? How about doing away with something significant, like plastic water bottles, instead?

In fact, I'm considering stocking up now. I surely won't have periods for much longer; maybe I'll just buy a dozen packets.

I've stock piled the tampax compact pearl. I need 90 boxes to see me through to menopause. I'll cut back in other areas, but not this.

@Cherrysoup lube makes everything slippery so when you get to pushing the smaller applicator tube inside the bigger one you can't get a grip so the tampon won't come out. It's also awkward trying to juggle all that when you're in a public toilet without a sink in the cubicle.

Christ you can really tell which women have been blessed with straightforward periods or solutions that work for them, and which haven't.

Cherrysoup

I'm not carrying around a tube of bloody lube to insert tampons so everyone can feel better about themselves while they jet off on foreign holidays multiple times a year, drive daily, buy food shipped in from half way across the world, and buy loads of unnecessary tat wrapped in loads of plastic and then throw it away a year later! Can we also have a ban on any of the above, or would it affect the wrong people?

Where do condoms sit in the single use debate? I remember as a teenager thinking it bitterly unfair that condone could be free, but I wasn’t having sex, yet I had no choice but to shell out for tampons.

SUCK IT UP

Judystilldreamsofhorses

I was just thinking about that. I'm not really sure - could it be argued that there's no viable alternative (in terms of protection from STDs), other than abstinence?

Where do condoms sit in the single use debate? I remember as a teenager thinking it bitterly unfair that condone could be free, but I wasn’t having sex, yet I had no choice but to shell out for tampons.

I presume as an adult you have a better understanding of the very different impact pregnancy has in comparison with a period?

I do agree that it’s virtue signalling “look at us!” and that women’s products are an easy target.
I prefer the plastic ones too, cannot get a manual tampon or mooncup in and yes the paper ones nip.
I use CSP (best thing EVER) and tampons only for swimming. For people asking about Cloth SAN Pro it’s easy. I either chuck them in a lidded bucket to soak or I rinse them in the shower when I’m in there. They live in a wet bag. Then wash them with normal clothes.

Siameasy

How do they work? Are they way more absorbent than disposable pads? I can't imagine wearing the same pair all day but maybe they're deceptively absorbent.