29 Women Are Sharing Things About Their Bodies They Wish They’d Known As Teens

14.

“Not everyone can use tampons or menstrual cups, and that’s okay! I tried using tampons many times as a teen. I tried every size and every possible method of insertion, I even asked my mom, grandma, doctors, and even health teacher about putting them in correctly. No matter how ‘deep’ I got it, I could always still feel it, and it was so painful.”

“The one time I pushed through the pain, I was leaking so badly I stained both my shorts AND my socks, like blood was literally running down my leg after an hour. Finally, when I was 17, I was able to see a pediatric gynecologist who checked me out and explained to me that I was right to say that tampons did not work for me! Some women truly CAN feel a tampon or menstrual cup even when they’re inserting it 100% correctly and using the correct size! Some women just are that sensitive! I ended up having to do pelvic floor therapy in college when I met my now-husband, and we started having penetrative sex, so I could enjoy sex painlessly. I get shamed and questioned so much as an adult woman who still uses pads exclusively, and I hate that so much.”

—Anonymous, 25, Virginia