How To Use Makeup Sponges For Period

The site Lifehacker suggests that women could hack their periods past using make-up sponges vaginally as menstrual hygiene products. This could even give one "bloodless" period sex.

This information comes from our learned good, nameless "sources."

(Takes 3 deep cleansing breaths).

Brand up sponges are about commonly made of polyester cream (polyurethane) although evidently there are latex sponges too.

(Takes 3 more than deep cleansing breaths).

Later on there was some concern raised online about the safety and sanity of this recommendation the reporter asked an OB/GYN who said "makeup applicators and sea sponges aren't particularly worse than a tampon" and tampons are "zip special" when it comes to bacterial infections and so insert away.

(Gets light headed from all the cleansing breaths).

Cue the scientific discipline…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers tampons to be Form II medical devices and as such they have very specific safe testing requirements and standards. Menstrual hygiene products (including the sea sponge) and the contraceptive sponge take all been associated with toxic daze syndrome. And so the FDA and the OB/GYNS I run with actually do consider tampons something special and as such they are deserving of our scientific attending. In other words, in an industrialized society with access to tested products menstrual hygiene should not exist the stuff of "hacks."

It wasn't always this fashion. In the 1970s, when tampons were considered "nothing special" by the FDA Proctor and Gamble decided they wanted to get into the tampon game. To do this they wanted a tampon to prepare themselves autonomously from the others. They wanted one then reliably absorbent that it even captivated "the worry." Ha ha.

Proctor and Gamble wanted a new, bold, disruptive tampon so I guess y'all could say they wanted to hack flow. They innovated by changing tampon materials and blueprint in essentially every way. The product that came from this quest for ultimate dryness was the Rely tampon made of polyester foam cubes and fries and carboxycellulose (a gelling amanuensis) wrapped up in a teabag like polyester pouch.

Because the initial tests on Rely were completed by 1974, earlier tampons were legally a "large deal," the product was allowed to be grandfathered in past the FDA with inadequate safety information. Approximate what happened side by side? The incidence of menstrual toxic shock syndrome (mTSS) skyrocketed to thirteen.7/100,000 in 1980. For reference information technology is 1-two/100,000 correct now.

The exact mechanisms that Rely increased mTSS is unknown. Hypotheses include increased bacterial adherence to the polyester foam or the gel agent (or both), the absorbancy may have helped with bacterial growth, or the impact of the significantly more air trapped by thepolyester foam versus a cotton or rayon tampon. Oxygen is a co-factor in development of mTSS.

I popped a make-upward sponge in a beaker just to see how much air might exist trapped and I was astounded at the amount of gas released. I did the same experiment with a super plus tampon and I saw no bubbling.

What if polyester foam bothers you lot because McChemicals? No worries, Lifehacker suggests sea sponges without informing the reader that a written report from 1982 found users of sea sponges for menstruation were significantly more than likely to test positive for Staph aureus (the leaner that produces the toxin that causes mTSS) during menstruation than those using tampons (24% of ocean sponge users versus 5% of tampon users). As in that location was no deviation in Staph aureus when the women were not on their periods (and thus not using menstrual products) this dramatic crash-land with sponges versus tampons tin but be sponge related.

It is non a "hack" to suggest women use make-up sponges or sea sponges for their period it is a gross disregard of the testify that is currently available and a disservice to women. It is wrong to say tampons are "no big deal" when the FDA requires extensive data regarding product safety, such as this.

And lets not forget this specific attention to microbiology in the FDA menstrual product approval process. To me this says "big bargain."

Lifehacker should remove the article. It is non acceptable to fail to inform your readers about the fact the polyester cream material you are suggesting for menstrual hygiene has been implicated as a causative agent in mTSS. It is also not okay to imply that makeup sponges and sea sponges are the same equally tampons condom wise because they are not. If your expert doesn't know that tampons are class Two medical devices, that they require safety testing, and that the introduction of oxygen is believed to be a critical footstep in menstrual TSS so there is an issue.

I advise against using make-up and sea sponges vaginally. Oxygen is not your vagina's friend just I am.