To not wash the inside of my vagina?

[Secretname123]

First AIBU so please be nice! There is a huge debate going on on twitter where people are horrified that some women wear tampons in the shower (it seems to be the majority of the many women responding to the tweets who are horrified). They claim it’s unsanitary because then you can’t wash inside your vagina. I thought we weren’t supposed to do this? I’m sure I had this drummed into me as a child. I never have and have never had an infection. Have I been doing it wrong all these years?!

Yikes… incoming BV!

Not sure what you find so bizarre about showering with a tampon in? For 5 days of my period it is seriously heavy, I don't want blood all over my bathroom when I'm getting in and out of the shower, nor do I want it on my towels or floors. There is absolutely no reason to take a tampon out to shower or bath because you don't need to wash your vagina!

This is normal for a lot of people, count yourself lucky that you don't have heavy periods

Erm, yes they do. You do understand what periods are don’t you?

Better than doing it in the reverse order!

Still weird and unnecessary imo.

Are you really 'not sure'? Why don't you hazard a guess?

Maybe because you, at that moment, have blood coming out of that area and you might want to wash it!?

The idea that people are not doing this, especially on their period is frankly 🤢

Did you mean to be so patronising?

Anyone bleeding that heavily every month is quite clearly not just dealing with a 'period'. They need a doctor not a tampon!

yes, yes I do mean to be that patronising. Periods involve bleeding 24/7 for several days and for some women it is very heavy with continual flow. I cannot believe you would be genuinely posting on a women’s internet forum and be unaware of this, and be unaware that it is not necessary to remove the tampon in order to clean the blood off the external parts of the anatomy.

Well, since my personal hygiene is nothing to do you, your opinion doesn't really matter here.

'Weird' for washing my arse!? Wow. MN really has reached a new low...

So like everyone else you wash the outside of your body… and your sarcasm was unwarranted (and unless you also wash out your eyes with them open, then you missed an orifice).

You literally just said that you don’t stick anything up anywhere- therefore you aren’t washing menstrual blood out of your vagina, you are just washing your vulva like everyone else! I don’t understand why you think that your hygiene is anything special…

Well, yes, you'd shower and replace your tampon so that you were totally clean to go out. Not just 'wash your hair'. 🙄

For starters, I wouldn't strip off in a communal shower in any event, least of all on my period (no 'clots' here, tho!), so thst scenario is unlikely. I shower the chlorine off, dress, then bath/shower properly when I get home.

I shower the chlorine off, dress, then bath/shower properly when I get home.

So you would shower with your tampon in then.

I wash the outside with fem fresh and stick my fingers up with warm water to rinse.

If your personal hygiene is 'nothing to do with' other MNers, why are you going to such lengths on this thread to describe it in detail with accompanied judgement on how disgusting you find people who do it differently?

I don't have blood coming out of me when I'm in the shower as I'm wearing a tampon, but regardless I will wash my groin and vulva with warm water and a mild soap as I do on non period days. My tampon is changed as and when required, it's not changed just before or just after a shower unless I was due to change it anyway.

Genuine question - why?

I wash the outside with fem fresh and stick my fingers up with warm water to rinse.

Why do you do that, out of interest? Was it how you were taught to wash?

God I swear, some people are either quite dim, or really have no knowledge about their own bodies!!! I never "fish" around up there in the shower for any reason! (sorry for the fish comment on a thread about vag's!!!)
But I know one thing, some people will argue about absolutely bloody anything!!! 🙄🙄🙄(Sorry again for the bloody comment on a thr... Yeah, you get the gist!!! 🤣🤣🤣)

Well, perhaps try not being, as that's not really the way to make people want to engage with you.

I seriously am not arguing with someone about how they wash - or indeed don't - their nether regions. You do you.

Is this based on a tiktok I saw where women were saying they scooped out their period blood in the shower? They were all going on about it as they free bleed too. No I don’t wash inside and I never did a blood scoop either. You don’t need to wash the inside on your period really either but I did used to take my tampon out for a shower sometimes to let it come out naturally. But you can just leave your tampon in and wash the outside and that’s fine

I haven't commented on those who do it differently - I've commented on those who don't do it at all!

I was replying to someone who asked another PP, 'do you wash every orifice?'. I replied saying I did, and in what way. I was answering a question.

What those who have a more 'relaxed' attitude to hygiene think about my cleanliness, however, is neither here or there.

Every orifice implies that you wash your vaginal passage and inside your rectum though.
I dont think you'd need to be particularly relaxed about hygiene to skip those steps!

OK... let me elaborate... I get out of the pool, go into the changing room, get under the shower, still wearing my swimsuit, just to rinse off as much chlorine as possible. Then I dry off, put my hair in a top knot and throw my joggers/sweats on, so that I can go home and shower (sans tampon!), do hair, makeup, and put on clean clothes.

I really didn't think that would require such a full explanation.

Not washing every orifice isn't having a relaxed attitude to hygiene ffs, I'm perfectly clean without washing out my vagina

@Jumpingthruhoops out of interest, do you clean out your nose too? And if you get a runny nose, say if you’ve been outside on a cold day or you’ve been upset, do you dunk your head in a bucket of Dettol?

Just wondering on behalf of those of us with ‘a more relaxed attitude to hygiene’.