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Monday Mini: What's Going on With Tampons? · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Sanny and Samantha. I want my Stuffie
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: never told you predicture of I Heart Radio, and today
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  Speaker 1: it is September seventeenth, twenty twenty four. I say this
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  Speaker 1: because this is an ongoing news story that I'm sure
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  Speaker 1: a lot of you have heard about. Okay, I know
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  Speaker 1: we've talked about this before. I hope you don't mind
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  Speaker 1: me asking were you a tampon person or a pad person?
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  Speaker 2: Smantha, I was a tampon person, so it took me
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  Speaker 2: a while to get figured to figure that out. I
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  Speaker 2: have a vivid, vivid memory of my high school best
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  Speaker 2: friend's mother. We went in middle school, so my middle
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  Speaker 2: school's best friend's mother having to teach me how to
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  Speaker 2: use one because I was freaking out because I actually
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  Speaker 2: hurt the first time I ever used it, and they
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  Speaker 2: just kept feeling like they were falling out. So it
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  Speaker 2: took me a long time. I say a long time,
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  Speaker 2: like probably a year to two years into my period
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  Speaker 2: to actually figure out how to use those. But after
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  Speaker 2: I did, I became a tampon person forever and ever
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  Speaker 2: and ever until I, you know, stopped having my period.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, I and I would buy the multiboxes and
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  Speaker 2: carry them about towards the end. I did use the
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  Speaker 2: ob which is the one without the applicator. That was
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  Speaker 2: an adventure.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like you've talked about that before.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it took me a minute to figure that
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  Speaker 2: one out too.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, I was a bad person. I never could. They
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  Speaker 1: always hurt, and I even tampon's always hurt. And I
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  Speaker 1: even tried, like the really small ones. I tried, like
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of things, because it felt like it. I
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  Speaker 1: know we've talked about this before. There's no real rhyme
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  Speaker 1: or reason behind it, but it felt like pruds use
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  Speaker 1: pads like the cool people used to.
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  Speaker 2: It though the mature girls knew how to use that,
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  Speaker 2: and a baby.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, use paths, which is not true at all. No,
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  Speaker 3: it's not true. It is not true at all. But
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  Speaker 3: I did feel it because I was I think I
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  Speaker 3: was the only pad person in my friend group.
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  Speaker 1: But I just couldn't. I couldn't figure it out to
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  Speaker 1: this day, to this day, I don't know, don't know
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  Speaker 1: what was going on there, probably user error, could have
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  Speaker 1: been anything. But I did try. I was really determined,
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  Speaker 1: and I did wear them sometimes, but just generally it
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  Speaker 1: didn't work out. But okay, I guess CW, it's not
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  Speaker 1: really a c W disclaimer. We're not doctors. Okay, we
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: are not doctors, but we did want to talk about
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  Speaker 1: this recent news story about tampons that caught a lot
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  Speaker 1: of attention, a lot of headlines. So a small study
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  Speaker 1: from July twenty twenty four found low levels of arsenic
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  Speaker 1: and lead in inorganic and organic tampons. The study surveyed
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  Speaker 1: thirty tampons and fourteen different brands with varying absorbencies, purchased
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  Speaker 1: in the US, the UK, and Greece. When the tampons
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  Speaker 1: were tested, the testers didn't know the brand, so it
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  Speaker 1: was a blind test. They were looking for the presence
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  Speaker 1: of sixteen heavy metals. The study did not ascertain whether
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  Speaker 1: the medals were released when the tampon was used. According
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  Speaker 1: to the EPA, there is no safe level of exposure
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  Speaker 1: to lead in humans, so that's bad. In response, the
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  Speaker 1: FDA announced that they would be investigating any harm done
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  Speaker 1: to people who use tampons. Here's part of the statement
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  Speaker 1: from the FDA quote. It also did not test the
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  Speaker 1: study for metals being released absorbed into the vaginal lining
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  Speaker 1: and getting into the bloodstream during tampon use. The FDA
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  Speaker 1: has therefore commissioned an independent literature review and initiated an
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  Speaker 1: internal bench laboratory study to evaluate metals and tampons. We
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  Speaker 1: want the public to know that before tampons can be
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  Speaker 1: legally sold in the US, they must meet FDA requirements
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  Speaker 1: for safety and effectiveness. Manufacturers must test the product and
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  Speaker 1: its component materials before, during, and after manufacturing before a
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  Speaker 1: product is allowed onto the market. Biocompatibility testing is undertaken
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  Speaker 1: by the manufacturing company, which is part of safety testing
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  Speaker 1: and is reviewed by the FDA prior to market authorization.
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  Speaker 1: And then a spokesperson for the American Chemistry Council came
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  Speaker 1: out in stressed that just the presence of a chemical
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  Speaker 1: does not necessarily mean that there will be negative health
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  Speaker 1: effects or outcomes. However, the concern here are One of
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  Speaker 1: the concerns is that vaginal tissue is really permeable. These
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  Speaker 1: are products that are used inside the body. However, most
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  Speaker 1: who have been researching this say that there is no
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  Speaker 1: reason at this time to stop using these products, but
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  Speaker 1: just like to keep an eye on any new research
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  Speaker 1: that's coming out. Experts suggest changing tampons regularly four to
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  Speaker 1: six hours if you're worried, using the lowest absorbency level
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  Speaker 1: possible at washing your hands before and after. The FDA
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  Speaker 1: also cautions if you have discomfort to pain or other
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  Speaker 1: unexpected symptoms like unusual discharge when trying to insert our
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  Speaker 1: aware a tampon, or if you have an allergic reaction,
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  Speaker 1: stop using tampons in contact your provider. So here I
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  Speaker 1: would just say, like, given the cost of tampons, once again,
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  Speaker 1: I think there's more conversation we'd be having if you're
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  Speaker 1: saying change them more regularly. Great, but they're so expensive anyway.
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  Speaker 1: I also think another part of this is just it's
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  Speaker 1: demoralizing and disheartening. I got a lot of messages from
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  Speaker 1: friends about this, where it just feels like another reminder
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  Speaker 1: of how little we prioritize women's health and how little
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  Speaker 1: we care about it. So I get why people are
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  Speaker 1: so angry about it. Even if you know we're being
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  Speaker 1: told it's fine, it's hard to trust that. Yeah, it's
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  Speaker 1: just a little like all this time, really now you're
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  Speaker 1: tainting it?
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  Speaker 2: Right? Cool?
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  Speaker 1: Love that Just an FYI, A significant number of people
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  Speaker 1: use tampons every month. Of those who menstrate, about fifty
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  Speaker 1: to eighty percent use tampons. Over the course of someone's
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  Speaker 1: reproductive years, they may use seven four hundred, so that's
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  Speaker 1: a long time to possibly be exposed to something toxic.
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  Speaker 1: According to one of the researchers who did the study,
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  Speaker 1: there's very very little research on tampons, and that this
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  Speaker 1: was the first study to look into these metals and tampons.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four from NPR quote, several experts told
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  Speaker 1: MPR that they were not surprised by the researcher's findings,
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  Speaker 1: since other studies over the years have detected potentially harmful
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  Speaker 1: chemicals and tampons and other menstrual products, including period underwear.
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  Speaker 1: Katherin Roberts, a health and science journalist at Consumer Reports
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  Speaker 1: who has written about tampons, says it's more surprising that
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  Speaker 1: the question wasn't investigated sooner. It's in the most sensitive
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  Speaker 1: part of people's bodies. It's so close to us, she says,
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  Speaker 1: we use so many tampons of our lifetime. It's just
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  Speaker 1: wild to me that this is both so little researched
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  Speaker 1: and so little regulated. YEP. Notably, in the nineteen nineties,
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  Speaker 1: something similar happened when companies stopped using the quote chlorinated
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  Speaker 1: bleaching process that produced a quote known human carcinogen in tampons.
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  Speaker 1: A twenty twenty two study found that twenty two percent
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  Speaker 1: of tampon surveyed had PIFAs, pfas or forever chemicals that
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  Speaker 1: are known to cause harm in humans. Once again, they
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  Speaker 1: weren't sure how much of that leads out into the
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  Speaker 1: body when used. But once again concerning and from this,
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  Speaker 1: there has been a flurry of other alarms raised. I
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  Speaker 1: saw one about condoms that was saying they had PIFAs
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  Speaker 1: in them, that they possibly had these metals in them.
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  Speaker 1: So there's been the kind of a like, oh, way,
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  Speaker 1: maybe we should look into this too because of the study,
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  Speaker 1: and they are going to follow up and do more.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously there's sort of complications when doing a study like
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  Speaker 1: this when you're trying to figure out how how much
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  Speaker 1: leeches into vaginal lining, for instance. But as I said,
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  Speaker 1: I feel the main point of frustration and for a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people is that it's twenty twenty four and
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  Speaker 1: they're just now like, oh, no, one's looked into this, right, oh.
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  Speaker 2: Right? I mean again, it took the to it this
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  Speaker 2: year to use actual blood, yes, to measure how much
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  Speaker 2: we talked about this earlier when we were talking about
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  Speaker 2: the but you know, shrink flation of tampons, possibly that
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  Speaker 2: we did, like the amount that we talk about in
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  Speaker 2: this conversation, the paink tax, like such such constant conversation
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  Speaker 2: about this, and yet there's so little that really does
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  Speaker 2: seem to be like, oh, we actually care about women
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  Speaker 2: and not just about like you know, stopping whatever that's
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  Speaker 2: happening to their body and we don't have to deal
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  Speaker 2: with it, like can you just plug that up please?
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  Speaker 2: Or wear this diaper? Think you have a great day.
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  Speaker 2: Stop talking to me, don't talk about it, don't care
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  Speaker 2: how much. I don't really want to know. Just yeah,
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  Speaker 2: just stop. Essentially beyond that is taken until now to
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  Speaker 2: actually have like hmmm, let's study something.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And this is by no means unique because
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  Speaker 1: we have a long history of things like this. I
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  Speaker 1: know you were on Behind the Bastards and you talked
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  Speaker 1: about kind of a really painful was it birth control?
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that is yes, we were talking about some
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  Speaker 2: crazy things. It was about the IUD that looks like
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  Speaker 2: a crab that essentially were killing people of the Dalkon Shield.
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  Speaker 2: That's what it was. And I know people because I
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  Speaker 2: think it's still in practice and a lot of other
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  Speaker 2: like especially in areas that doesn't have great healthcare. But
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  Speaker 2: the Dalcon schild and how it killed so many people
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  Speaker 2: and a lot of women of color, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people of color specifically, and we were like, wow, this
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  Speaker 2: is not what I want to think about today, thank you.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, it was created by man. It was about
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  Speaker 2: eugenics too.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, I mean that's the thing is like so
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  Speaker 1: many we're just so behind on so many of these
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  Speaker 1: things that people who menstrate use every frequently, use often
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  Speaker 1: to live their lives. And here we are still like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't know about that, right, maybe we should look
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  Speaker 1: into that, right. So yes, as we said, we are
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  Speaker 1: not doctors. The current consensus right now seems to be
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  Speaker 1: there's no reason to stop using tampons, but to just
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  Speaker 1: keep an eye out for any other research, which is
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  Speaker 1: also kind of frustrating because it's like another thing I
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  Speaker 1: have to do is watch out for this information. But
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  Speaker 1: that's that's where right now it seems we are. But yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: well we'll definitely keep an eye out for it and
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  Speaker 1: keep you updated if anything changes in the meantime. If
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  Speaker 1: you have any information about this please let us know.
• 12:10
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• 12:12
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• 12:14
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• 12:21
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• 12:24
  Speaker 1: our super produced Christina Executi, producer and our contributor Joey.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 12:28
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