pink background. hand holding tampon by string
Chantel Brink
Chantel Brink
March 8, 2024 Â·  4 min read

Doctors shocked after woman accidentally left tampon in for two years

To all the women out there who use tampons – we all know how they work right? An American woman by the name of Melanie Galeaz has shared a rather shocking video where she mentions that she thought she had Lyme disease. But the real reason she felt so ill was rather different and an absolute eye-opener.

“It was not my proudest moment”

It turns out that Melanie had left a tampon inside herself for a total of two years as a teenager. The video amassed 16 million views and brought on a host of questions which Melanie was proud to answer. The most common question was how she never got TSS or Toxic Shock Syndrome from the ordeal. TSS is a life-threatening condition that is caused by bad bacteria multiplying in the body at a startling rate. This in turn releases harmful chemicals, making the host severely ill and putting them at risk of death.

Melanie about her 2 year tampon scare
Image Credit: TikTok/@melaniegaleaz

Melanie offered up more on the story of the 2-year-old tampon

She began by explaining her childhood. She had contracted Lym disease as a child after being bitten by an infected tick. This meant that she experienced all of the accompanying symptoms, which as those affected before know, are intense and unmistakable. The test results were inconclusive at the time, and she described them as ‘confusing and unclear.’

Medicated and on her way to full recovery, Melanie went home

When Melanie was in high school, she felt like the same symptoms were back. She had pain throughout her body and felt like she had once again been infected. Additionally, she was embarrassed to go to the doctor as there was an additional symptom that she had not experienced before. She could only describe it as ‘gross stuff happening down south.’

“But the tests were kind of confusing if I had it or not, but since I had all the symptoms and got bitten, the doctors gave me the meds, sent me on my way and I was fine. Then my sophomore year of high school, I started getting all these pains in my body and some really gross stuff was happening down south.” She said.

She, of course, hoped that everything was related as her symptoms were so similar to her previous Lyme disease diagnosis. Instead of seeking medical help, Melanie took the same medicine previously prescribed and mentioned that while it helped with the pain, her problems ‘down south’ continued. In fact, they continued for two whole years.

“I went to the doctor, but I didn’t really mention the issues happening down south, which I know was my fault. But the doctor was really disregarding me and he was being mean and scary. I was really embarrassed, I was about 14. It was really disgusting and embarrassing, and I just didn’t want to deal with it. But I kind of just hoped that it was something related to Lyme disease and that I could just ignore it with the meds and it would go away.” She continued.

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Melanie eventually sought the help of a gynecologist who gasped when she examined the teenager

Desperate for answers, she consulted with a gynecologist and it was then that the root cause of her symptoms was a little more shocking than she ever thought possible. “She says, ‘you have a tampon stuck horizontally under your cervix’,” she recalled. Doubtful that the tampon was left there for 2 years, doctors were the ones who suggested this may be the cause of her infection. This would have led to the intense pain she was feeling.

“I finally go to the doctor again and I went to the gyno. She cranked me open, looked and she gasps. I’m like ‘well, that’s not what you want to hear’. Then she says, ‘you have a tampon stuck horizontally under your cervix’. Taking it out hurt, because it was dissolving inside me. It kept breaking apart and it was such an unpleasant experience.”

Viewers were assured that Melanie and the tampon have since parted ways

Melanie about her 2 year tampon scare
Image Credit: TikTok/@melaniegaleaz

“For everyone asking about the smell, I come from a family that absolutely would have destroyed me if it smelled bad. It didn’t. At times, it did smell bad, and I was very sad thinking that I just smelled like that naturally, so I figured out ways to mask it.” Melanie even added that at one stage, she must have had a total of three tampons inside her at once. “I have no idea how long that one was in for. So I had one in me for two years, one in me for an unknown amount of time, and one in for about 8 hours.”

TickTockers could not come to terms with the ordeal and were absolutely shocked. “What I don’t understand is how you didn’t feel it. like ???,” one person wrote. Another commented: “I left one in for 2 weeks before an accident and it smelt HORRENDOUS. that’s crazy.” It seems we can agree here – how did this go undetected for so long?

The NHS states that a tampon should be left in for no longer than 8 hours due to the imminent health risks associated with Toxic Shock Syndrome. Tampon usage has been linked to TSS in rare cases and should always be taken seriously. We only have one body and at the end of the day, our health is the only thing we can truly be grateful for.

Keep Reading: Horribly Sexist Things That Show How Messed Up Our Society Is To Women

Sources

  1. ‘The doctor gasped’: Woman left her tampon in for two years.” News AU. Jasmine Kazlauskas. December 24, 2022
  2. Doctors shocked after woman accidentally left tampon in for two years.” Unilad. Jake Massey. December 24, 2022