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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:

NotQuiteCockney · 03/07/2007 19:12

Oh, I've seen a little boy pee in the pool. I wasn't happy about it (and yeah, I know urine is sterile anyway, really), but that was partly down to his mum not doing or saying anything about it.

Thing is, menstrual blood is a tiny bit of blood, with some vaginal secretions. It's not really that big a deal. I wouldn't swim without a mooncup or similar, but I don't exactly care what other women do.

Blandmum · 03/07/2007 19:17

On my first day, I bleed lots. I wouldn't like the thought of it going into the water. It would be visible, for starters. Not that I think that menstrual blood is 'evil' or anything I wouldn't bleed with a nose bleed either.

Rantmum · 03/07/2007 19:24

Used to swim for my school and my university. Used tampons even on heavy days - just got "super" ones and put one in right before swimming and then changed it immediately after leaving the pool. Never a problem, never had any blood in the water (and my period is really heavy on the first day). Actually swimming is brilliant for menstrual cramps - regular swimming through the month more or less gets rid of them entirely for me - and when I don't exercise I get quite bad ones. Hope that helps.

BTW if you don't tend to use tampons, bear in mind we are only talking about an hour or so of use each day for only a couple days a month.

flibbertyjibbet · 03/07/2007 19:44

I am put out that someone is going 'eeeewwww' at me.
Firstly it just occurred to me that anyone reading this whole thread may confuse my 'I don't use tampons I prefer it to flow out' with 'I have always been taught that menstrual flow stops in the water'. I don't deliberately swim whilst having a period (well I don't swim on the heavy days anyway) just so that all my blood can go wild in the pool.
It was taught in actual books and period information literature when I started (which OK was 1974) that it was ok to swim and have a bath when menstruating because the flow stopped whilst you are immersed in water (not a shower). So myself and many many other women believe this and today is the first day that I have found women who believe differently.
I would never deliberately do anything in a swimming pool to upset other people - fgs how many of you wear a swimming hat so that your hairs don't end up floating on the water??? I do!
I can't beleive the OP started this thread then pissed off, I am going to now state that maybe she is a troll and on that grounds ladies I am off this thread.

SweetyDarling · 04/07/2007 09:56

NQC - a tablespoon or two? I can loose that in 1 day!

NotQuiteCockney · 04/07/2007 10:03

Ok, I've looked it up - average loss is 35ml (3 table spoons) with 10 - 80 ml considered normal. Even at 80, over the course of a cycle, that's well less than half a cup.

obimomkanobi · 04/07/2007 10:27

I can't go swimming. I know that I am irrational and just plain stoopid but public swimming baths heeb me out. It's the thought of other people's dirt floating around in the water, seeing plasters bobbing around and human hair. Now that urine and menstrual blood has been added into the mix I feel rather queasy.

Also I have this 'thing' about walking around in changing rooms/poolside in bare feet, especially if I can see mud/dirt from people's outside shoes on the floor.

I sound like a nutter don't I?

MorocconOil · 04/07/2007 10:36

No you don't sound like a nutter obim.

I am not going to stop swimming, but after reading this thread I am going to make sure I always keep my mouth firmly closed whilst in the water, and have a very long hot shower straight afterwards. I am also going to resist inspecting the water while I am in it.

bozza · 04/07/2007 10:45

I think that going swimming without a tampon/mooncup when on a period is a bit yuk TBH. But I have been in the bath without (especially postnatally) and I can definitely say that the bleeding did not stop because I was in the bath although it did slow down a bit. But as soon as I stood up it would speed back up again.

Cappuccino · 04/07/2007 10:49

jesus feminism has still a way to go if we are still freaked out by our own vaginal secretions

I hope to god mimizan that everyone is keeping their mouth tight shut while in the water for fear of getting a small amount of saliva in it; ditto not breathing as we know noses are full of germs

I imagine that everyone puts themselves into a zen-like trance the rest of the month to make sure that their evil vagina stops producing those pesky natural discharges

fruittea · 04/07/2007 10:52

Anybody got any tips for 11 year olds though? She can't manage a tampon, and was distraught when her AF started the day before we left for holiday in half term - and we're going again in a couple of weeks. She just had to potter about in shorts with a pad on, and wait til most of it was over.

NotQuiteCockney · 04/07/2007 10:53

NotQuiteCockney · 04/07/2007 10:56

fruittea, I don't know what to recommend for your 11-year-old. A dark-coloured swimsuit, and trying tampons again? They do make 'slender' ones, I think.

Alternatively, if she has a thorough shower beforehand, she should be fine, tbh, as long as she's in the water, not on the beach ...

MorocconOil · 04/07/2007 10:58

I haven't got a problem with my own secretions, it's just I don't find stranger's body waste particularly appetising. I can't see the connection with feminism.

fruittea · 04/07/2007 11:05

Thanks NQC. Bought the teeniest, tiniest mini ones I could find, but she's just not ready - mentally or physically - for it. We stuck to pink cozzies and pink short shorts! She'll cope it's just soooo young to be coping with it, isn't it? Bad enough when you're a grown up, but she's still just a little girl.

SweetyDarling · 04/07/2007 11:15

Oh the poor poppet. I can remember being really upset that my periods didn't start till I was 15, but in retrospect it was fab!
If she can practise with a tampon when she doesn't have her period (maybe with some KY to make it easier to insert) then it might be easier when she needs to use it. Doesn't help in the short-term though.

fruittea · 04/07/2007 11:18

TBH we didn't even get as far as the tampon. She tried to insert a finger when she was in the bath and just wasn't prepared to try too hard iyswim. It might be worth encouraging another try though.

lullamay · 04/07/2007 11:24

Bless her! I was like that. Tampons freaked me out & I was very conscious of leaking so wore huge pads & horrible plastic knickers.

Rantmum · 04/07/2007 13:36

Using tampons when very young may not be the answer (I couldn't use them until I was 14 and I had only been getting my period for a year at that point, but it was the fact that I couldn't continue swim training that forced me to spend about an hour locked in the bathroom with a box of tampons til I finally got the courage to actual use one)

Part of the problem is that no matter how much I understood about biology from those reproduction diagrams that teenagers are subjected to, I still didn't believe that the tampon couldn't get "lost" or "stuck" inside of me. Then someone showed me the size of the opening to the cervix, compared to a tampon and that helped quite alot!

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