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Sunday, November 25, 2007

Sponge

Warning: If you tend towards the squeamish (or if you're male), proceed with caution.

After reading about using sea sponges instead of tampons on one of my favorite blogs, I decided it was worth a shot. I had my reservations, of course, but so far they have all turned out to be warrantless.

I purchased Sea Sponge Tampons from GladRags, where I had previously purchased reusable cotton pads that I would also highly recommend. They are extremely comfortable, and there's no annoying string to irritate me. They couldn't be simpler to use; you merely rinse it out and put it back in. No garbage and no concerns over Toxic Shock Syndrome. Plus, they don't dry out the girl parts like regular tampons do.

As of right now, I can see no downside to them at all. I suppose for women like one of my former co-workers who was horrified and disgusted with me when I offered her an OB (it boggles my mind that you could be an adult with two children and be afraid of touching your private parts but whatever), then this product is not for you. But if you are someone that is concerned with lessening your impact on the environment or if you are economically motivated, then I would suggest replacing the tampons you normally use with the uber-comfy sponges.

Thanks for the inspiration, Riana!

11 comments:

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

These were around years ago and I used them briefly and liked them but then read something negative and stopped using them, and I think it had to do with toxic shock, or something like that. Unfortunately I forget the details. Maybe they've been improved since then. I sure like the idea of them.

I don't need them any more for myself, though, having officially become a crone and gone through my "change."

I love the idea of them and hope they work out for you.

I am definitely curious about those women afraid or grossed out by either the idea of these or the OBs. Hello--don't you wash yourself?

a/k/a Nadine said...

According to the paperwork that came with my sea sponges (paraphrased):
TSS is caused by a bacteria that enters the boodstream through wounds in the vagina, often happening when tampons cause drying out of the vagina mucosa.

Coffeypot said...

OOOHHH, who’s the lady that smell so clean?
Sponge Box, Nadine!

Who’ stays moist and serine?
Sponge Box, Nadine!

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Well, Like I said, Nadine, I don't remember the details at the moment.

LOL! What a riot coffeypot is.

BerryBird said...

I am intrigued by all of this, but I need more details, specifically about the logistics of how you would handle this in a public restroom. I could take this to email if you want to maintain some modicum of modesty?

Anonymous said...

I work for GladRags and I have some tips!

When I was at a trade show, I was using sea sponges (instead of my usual GladRags) because I had on a skirt that worked better with an internal option. Well, the only option was a public restroom for changing my sponge out and I only brought two of them and was using them both - you can do that if your flow is really heavy.

Anyway, I filled up my water bottle, went into the stall and poured the water over the sponge to rinse out the blood and reinsert. It worked great, though the lady next to me probably thought there was a lot of sporadic peeing going on in the next stall :)

What I would usually recommend, however, is bringing along two ziplocks - one with moistened but unused sponges, and another for your used sponges. This way you don't have to clean your used sponges in the public restroom and you have some clean sponges ready to go!

If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me! Great post!

-Diana
diana@gladrags.com
http://www.gladrags.com/blog

jo(e) said...

Oh, I am going to have to try this.

(It wouldn't bother me at all to see someone rinsing out sea sponges in a public restroom. I mean, people change diapers and such in public restrooms.)

Casey said...

I've never tried the sponges. I have the Moon Cup which I did not love at first, but now I think it's fab.

Also, if I remember correctly from Micro 440 (and I think I do), toxic shock syndrome is associated with highly absorbent tampons because the higher the absorbency, the more Mg++ that is leached from the vaginal walls. If Staph aureus is around, it freaks out when it runs out of Mg++ and it releases Toxic Shock Syndrome Toxin to kill the cells around it so that it can eat their Mg++. It just so happens that TSST is a super antigen and causes the massive immune response known as Toxic Shock Syndrome.

Fascinating, no? Or maybe I'm just a dork.

Coffeypot said...

Just curious! Are the sponges the same size and can they be used to wash your car between cycles? Enquiring minds want to know. I see alot of them in the auto section of WalMart.

Smellyann said...

These comments are making me laaaaaughhhh!!!

Momma Val said...

This is an old post but I am dying laughing at all the comments. Especially the sponge Nadine song. I have never heard of these but am now very intrigued.