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?!

Eh? It's called a period, isn't it? When I had them for some of the days the flow was less, but it lasted approx 24/7 for 7 days.

Whatever works for you, I guess...

If you bled around the clock for 7 days, I'm pretty sure you would be dead.

and for most people on here it seems

Erm....

Removing a tampon allows water to gently clean the opening of your vagina that has had blood coming out of it. No sticking anything anywhere.

This is the same as washing the skin of your anus to gently clean the opening that has had poo coming out of it. Again, without sticking anything inside the actual rectum itself. That would be silly.

I can't quite believe that a) this needs explaining and b) that people don't observe this frankly basic level of cleanliness.

Interested to know what people deem unhygienic...

@Jumpingthruhoops but you don't know when it will stop/start
Mine are heavy. I could get in the shower with no tampon and then suddenly flood as I get out with blood everywhere

So I shower with a tampon and change it after or I risk dripping blood on the bath mat and floor. Mine are 8 days and I flood for the first 4, it may be less or more but it doesn't actually stop at any point until well, my period ends!

I think some people’s only experience of female reproductive anatomy is of their mothers’ during their 9 month residency and exit.

You don’t need to remove a tampon to
clean the opening of your vagina. The tampon is (should be !) inserted higher than that!

What a load of nonsense. Are you a man?

If you bled around the clock for 7 days, I'm pretty sure you would be dead But you can’t control when the blood comes out. You could be getting out of the shower nice and clean and bleed down your leg. Or pass a small clot (which is completely normal) on your bathroom floor while drying yourself or getting out etc. the first day or two are not a light flow for many people, and that is normal. That’s why the majority of people on the thread wear tampons in the shower. You can still clean yourself perfectly well.

I'm more concerned that people DON'T use a tampon when showering! Surely the blood gets all over the towel when drying your bits?! It certainly did when I used to use pads

“I don't jet wash the fucker”
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣thank you for this.

I’m pretty sure that’s the reason for some people on the laundry obsessive threads to have a clean towel every time they bathe/shower. Which is kind of fair enough if you have the resources to do so and also unnecessary to do so when you’re not on.

So it seems. Just because 'most people' do something doesn't make it right. Obviously.

Happy to stick with the (seemingly) few of us that wash ourselves properly.

If your tampon is blocking the opening of your vagina, then you're inserting it wrong!

@Jumpingthruhoops it’s not really cleaner or more hygienic to stick things up your bum hole or vag, especially soap which can be an irritant, what is water really going to do in terms of just changing the PH? You wash your outside bits with water this still doesn’t sterilise them and neither does sticking a shower head up there or a finger. If you just let your vagina self clean itself it knows what it’s doing, water doesn’t have special properties - the reason you need to use soap on armpits and groin is cos skin has oil which doesn’t wash away with simple water.

@Menora perhaps that poster is one of those new types of women that do need to manually clean their orifice? Not like us boring old fashioned women with our self-cleaning vaginas...

Yes, I understand that bit but blood isn't constantly coming out all day, every day for seven days. At the very least, you'd be anaemic!

No matter how heavy, I can't imagine keeping a tampon in when I'm actually washing. I get blood on my towel sometimes, sure. I just change the towel afterwards.

Sorry, I just thought this is what people did...

No, obviously . I don't know why you're getting this so wrong when it's so obvious. Someone dies if the lose a minimum 2.5-4 litres of blood fairly quickly. - that's 2500 to 4000ml over a length of time much shorter than the average period.

A period feels like it's a lot but it's on average for most women 20-90ml over 5-7 days in all unless someone has more than the average heavy periods or has something gynecologically severely wrong. But for most women it is mostly continuous during a period, except maybe near the end. You can't predict when it's going, either.

Well, yes, who wants to be boring and old fashioned? All the cool kids I know wash! 🤷‍♀️

Well, yes, who wants to be boring and old fashioned? All the cool kids I know wash

Mine cleans itself. Super handy.

Before I had a hysterectomy I had severe anaemia (ferritin of 2, HB of 78..) due to severe blood loss and wore adult nappies (complete with nappy rash) I’m still alive 😂
but I lost a lot of towel, bathmats and bedding along the way. The issue I had with the blood was that it was all spurted up my bum crack so I used to wash that off, obviously but the inside bits took care of themselves.

I don’t know how many more people need to tell you that water doesn’t really do much in the way of cleaning it just changes your PH levels of your vagina. Ok you wash away ‘debris’ but it doesn’t make you scientifically cleaner - your vagina will clean itself and yours has to work harder to resettle its PH, so you are ripe for BV! What debris do you have up inside your vagina?

I wash the areas properly that require washing i.e. the external bits, there is no reason whatsoever to wash inside your vagina.

I think you're just on the fucking wind up now, either that or you are completely thick

I actually did just learn something... don't use a wash cloth/flannel down there, been doing this for a year or so. It can cause little scratches on delicate skin. I've been using a flannel to clean the bum area too (for past year or so) but maybe I'll stop doing that as it has got slightly irritated. Who knew?