A woman has issued a warning to people who use tampons after losing both her legs.
If you use tampons, Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) may be a condition you have heard about.
It is described as a rare but life-threatening condition caused by an infection, which can happen when using a tampon.
Lauren Wasser, from LA, lost both of her legs and nearly died at 24 years old, after finding out she had suffered TSS.
The survivor, now 36, claims that she was changing her tampon every four hours during the cycle in 2012, when she started to experience flu-like symptoms, paired with a high fever.
She told The Diary of a CEO podcast: “I was on my period. It was super heavy. I guess I must have passed out. They found me face down on my bedroom floor. I was 10 minutes from death.”
She was rushed to hospital where she suffered two cardiac arrests, are was put into a coma by health professionals due to organ failure.
Hospital staff informed her parents that the chances of their daughter surviving was one percent.
She said: “My feet were turning black so when I finally woke up they needed to amputate my right leg or I was going to die.
“They’re telling me that we cannot give you any pain medication. I felt every single thing that was done to me.”
The damage to her legs from gangrene was irreparable, and surgeons made the decision to amputate her right leg below the knee.
While they managed to salve a lot of her left leg, in the years that followed, she suffered so much pain that her only choice was to have it amputated too.
Now, Lauren is fighting to ensure greater safety protections for menstrual products.
She said: “If men’s dicks were falling off tomorrow, that wouldn’t happen. So why is it women are having to fight for everything? Let alone the products we are given for something that we are naturally having to do every month for 40 something years.”
Symptoms of toxic shock syndrome include a high fever, low blood pressure, vomiting, confusion and seizures.
According to Better Health, people who use tampons can reduce the risk of toxic shock syndrome by changing tampons at least every four hours, avoiding using super-absorbent tampons, only unwrapping tampons if you’re going to use them immediately, washing your hands before and after using a tampon, using a sanitary pad overnight and considering using a sanitary pad on the final days of your period when your flow is lighter.
