“As a student, I was taking the exam of my life to get into a big school when I almost died, because of the tampons I wore for too long. This sounds like fake news, but, unfortunately , it’s true: I had a toxic shock, an acute generalized infection due to the staphylococcus aureus bacteria, one of the strains of which releases a very dangerous toxin, TSST-1.
Concretely, the bacterium uses the blood absorbed by the tampon as a culture medium, in order to proliferate. In fact, the longer it is kept, the more time the bacteria potentially has to multiply. If, unfortunately, as happened to me, the toxin passes into the blood from the vagina, the whole body is infected.
We never wear a tampon for more than 6 hours
I had never heard of toxic shock or changing tampons after 4 to 6 hours (or menstrual cups, but I didn’t wear one) in order to stay in a health comfort zone. I used to replace them when necessary, without worrying about counting the hours.
My priority was not to be bothered by my periods during my exams. Also, not only had I opted for the most absorbent tampons possible, those dedicated to very abundant flows, even if mine was normal, so as not to have to change them during the tests, but, in addition, when I took one off, I put one back on immediately. Again, I didn’t know that you had to take breaks and alternate use of external protection, such as a pad or menstrual panties, to limit the potential risk of proliferation.
Symptoms are a bit like the flu
Since the start of my period, five days before my discomfort, I was woozy, I had chills, pain in the lower back and a little diarrhea. Fairly ordinary symptoms that I experienced for some months. But that week, the intensity was still a notch above usual. I put it down to stress and fatigue, as I had been studying day and night. It didn’t alert me any more, since I was in good health. I was playing tennis in regional competition and had had a medical check-up two months earlier.
On the day of the toxic shock I was having a 6 hour ordeal and with the travel time I had to keep my tampon on for 7:30 to 8 a.m. before collapsing…twenty minutes before the end of the review. I was rereading my copy when, suddenly, everything accelerated. My head and ribs hurt badly, sweat was beading down my neck and back, I felt weak and bright red patches covered my skin. I thought hypoglycaemia, but then I knew the infection was spreading through my body and it was a drop in blood pressure and a fever. Actually, the symptoms of toxic shock partly resemble those of the flu (chills, fever, headache, nausea…).
The infection has attacked the kidneys
I passed out without realizing it. The total blackout. I woke up in the hospital. My immense luck is to have been taken care of immediately by the firefighters of the examination center. If I had been alone in my maid’s room, I might not be talking to you today… I received an intravenous antibiotic treatment “at horsepower”, the doctor told me, and I was also put on temporary dialysis because the infection attacked my kidneys.
Hence my pain in the ribs, because I learned that they are not in the lower back, but under the ribs, on each side. I stayed three weeks in the hospital. And it took me four to five months to recover my muscle strength and energy. My kidneys are out of trouble, but they retain a fragility; their filtration capacity is slightly reduced, but this is not pathological. I was extremely lucky, I could have ended up in kidney failure and on dialysis for life.
I feel immense anger. Why did my gynecologist never inform me? But it’s mostly myself that I blame for being so negligent, because I checked, it’s written on the boxes of tampons. I had never read. I don’t wear any more, it worried me too much. I took the opportunity to go off the pill in favor of a hormonal IUD, which makes my period flow so low that in some months a panty liner is enough. That too, I didn’t know…
If there weren’t still a taboo around menstruation today, there wouldn’t be this lack of information, including tampons and cups. Rules are life, it’s femininity. My part of sorority is to talk about it so that it doesn’t happen again.
Learn more : This is my blood, Élise Thiébaut (ed. La Découverte Poche)
Read also :
- Testimonial: I donated a kidney to my brother
- Testimonial: the Lutéran is a comfort for today and a risk for tomorrow
- Testimonial: my fury to live despite cystic fibrosis
