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Original poster

swimming on your period?

44 replies

mumbleboo · 02/07/2007 21:26

I may be really quite thick not to know this, but i haven't been swimming or even in a bikini since i was 11. How does all this swimming while on your period business work? Can't believe it works IYKWIM

OP posts:

MamaG · 02/07/2007 21:27

eh?
tampon/mooncup

DoubleBluff · 02/07/2007 21:27

I normaly wear atampon but find i don't get a lot of bleeding in the water. It seems to stop it. For me anyhow.

PrincessButtercup · 02/07/2007 21:29

Know what you mean. I tend to avoid it on Day 1/2 as quite heavy. Otherwise happy to rely on mooncup/tampons.

PeachesMcLean · 02/07/2007 21:31

Just be careful the string hasn't fallen out when you're getting out of the water.

clumsymum · 02/07/2007 21:33

Surely you know about tampons?

Using a tampon effectively plugs the vagina, so the blood doesn't seep out, and the water doesn't seep in, at least until the tampon has fully been soaked in blood (usually 2 or 3 hours at least for most women).

are you in the U.K.? Where did you go to school?

PeachesMcLean · 02/07/2007 21:34

You did about tampons in school?

clumsymum · 02/07/2007 21:40

Yes, and that was a VERY long time ago (I'm one of the older people on here you know)

PeachesMcLean · 02/07/2007 21:43

Actually I'd sort of thought you must be a young thing. In my day, you had to wash the towels afterwards and wear a bustle...

flibbertyjibbet · 02/07/2007 22:00

It does seem to work, I don't like using tampons and quite often swim but not on first day. I took both my boys to a toddler swim session last week while af was visiting, quite confident that nothing would happen in the water. Have to be quick getting knicks/pad back on after though.

expatinscotland · 02/07/2007 22:01

Mooncup!

flibbertyjibbet · 02/07/2007 22:11

Mooncup to you too. I don't like using tampons, I don't like putting anything up there that doesn't let the flow just go where its meant to - out. I use nice natural washable pads and will never ever ever use a moon cup thanks.
And don't all get on at me about your mooncups. They are the marmite of san pro!

lucylala · 02/07/2007 23:10

i have been swimming for years whilst on my period, always used tampons and never, ever, ever had a problem or any accident - all of my friends swim while on their periods too!

Go for it - they'll be hundreds of other women all over the country swimming whilst on their periods - you may even see a stray string!! lol!

flibbertyjibbet · 03/07/2007 12:09

Lucylala, the op was referring to the wierd thing that mother nature does, in stopping the flow while you are in water. And it really does.
So I go swimming with kids with no tampon etc as I don't like using tampons but don't want to deprive kids of a swim one week in 4. (although when i used to do swim training with club I used tampons as I didn't want to risk the 'water stoppage' not working if I was doing an hour of intensive exersise iyswim).

NotQuiteCockney · 03/07/2007 12:11

The flow does not stop while you're in the water. The water just washes away the menstrual blood, both the blood that's come out, and the blood that's on its way down your vagina.

Same thing happens when you have a bath.

It's a very very very small amount of blood mixed with the normal vaginal secretions, it's not like you're pooing in the pool, but it does end up in the pool if you're not wearing a tampon or mooncup.

olivo · 03/07/2007 14:05

I agree with NQC - have seen the evidence in the bath so would not go swimming without a tampon as presumably, the exercise would increase the flow a little.
my only advice to mumbleboo would be to change the tampon when you get out of the pool as it absorbs the water a bit too.

clumsymum · 03/07/2007 17:28

Actually, I am now thinking a big 'YUK', at the thought of you all letting your menstrual blood seep out into the water.

What on earth made you think that you didn't bleed while swimming? Have you no knowledge of your physiology at all .......???

oh YUK.

PenelopePitstops · 03/07/2007 17:37

that happens to me too, no blood in the bath, sorry tmi!

Its not that sick, the chlorine in the pool kills everything. Have you never seen a child wee/poo/be sick in a pool. Its more clean than that.

Blandmum · 03/07/2007 17:37

Being in water doesn't stop menstrual flow! It will still come out. Being horizontal may slow it down a little.

Guttersnipe · 03/07/2007 17:39

Tampons don't work for me when I am in water. I think since having babies, the fanjo has stretched so that after a while, water fills the tampon and when I get out of the water (I am talking baths/showers here - I don't swim when having a period) blood comes pouring out. I am not the only one this happens to. It happened to a friend once and I was too mortified to tell her.

ruddynorah · 03/07/2007 17:44

flibberty- so you wouldn't use a tampon or a moon cup cos you like your flow to go 'where it's meant to..out' but you don't mind it all pooling on a pad in your knicks then, and then sitting on that all day?

SweetyDarling · 03/07/2007 17:56

Flibberty!
Eeeewwwww - I always thought that public pools were a bit yuck, but now I'm totally freaked out!
Pads are bad enough (except after birth or surgery) but the swimming thing is totally off!

FioFio · 03/07/2007 17:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

NotQuiteCockney · 03/07/2007 18:25

Oh, menstrual blood is hardly that big a deal. You lose a tablespoon or two at most over the course of a cycle, which someone could lose from a small cut easily while swimming. Yes, it's mixed with normal vaginal secretions, but unless everyone out there is wearing mooncups while swimming when not on their period, that's getting in the pool anyway.

I would wear a mooncup to swim, I wouldn't bother for a bath, though.

MorocconOil · 03/07/2007 18:38

Last week at a toddler splash session I saw a little boy climb out of the pool, pull his trunks down then wee into the pool. That almost put me off going but not as much as swimming in other women's vaginal secretions. That thought had never crossed my mind.... before now.

clumsymum · 03/07/2007 18:47

NQC,

No it isn't 'that big a deal', but it isn't nice either, is it?

Think about it, a bloke gobbing a green grolly into the pool wouldn't contribute much in proportion to the actual amount of water (and the chlorine should deal with the germs aspect), but you wouldn't like it, would you? No, well I feel the same about menstrual blood thank-you.

It never occurred to me, before this thread, that the other women swimming in the pool might be freely letting their menstrual flow out into the pool, now I'm quite put off by the thought.

Oh mimizan, didn't the pool staff say anything to the parent of the child who pee'd into the pool? That's pretty gross too. I mean, we all know that kids do it in the water, but surely we should be teaching them not to.

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