u/yerduaw8

So I’ve been out of pelvic floor PT for about 2 years now. I keep up with the stretching and dilating when I know I’ll need it, I can consistently have pleasant PIV and use the dilators without pain. I’m so proud of the progress. But I CAN’T do tampons.

I successfully (?) inserted a tampon for literally the 5th time in my life today. I immediately felt so uncomfortable, like, I was hyper-aware of it in my body with every movement, cramping … by the time I got to my friends house to go to the beach I was pale and shaking. At that point I was like, I’d rather just use a pad and get weird tan lines from my shorts than feel sick with this thing in. Anyway.

It was a light tampon. My flow is heavy!!! I did the squat and insert like everyone says to do. I did my breathing techniques. It went in fine, then, I just went totally stiff.

I can’t tell if the pain is a) a mental thing bc I overthink the feeling of it b) bc I’m inserting it wrong or c) bc of vaginismus.

I talk to my friends and they’re like “yeah when I was 12 it hurt to use a tampon the first 20 times.” Which is a whole different thing to unpack when ur 25. But did any of you have this experience??

Not being able to use a tampon has caused so much discomfort in my life as I grew up on boats and now live in a beach town. I hate having to be uncomfortable or cancel my plans bc I can’t use a tampon. It’s such a small thing, but it really got me down today.

Thanks for reading my rant. Please commiserate and/or drop tips below.

Hey! I, 25F, recently moved to the area and am eager to make some friends here since I plan to stay long term.

I thought it might be fun to host a monthly book club -- my rough idea is to call it something like "Post Grad Reading Club" and focus on literary fiction. Think modern classics, highly rated/award winning books and the kind of stuff that could have been required reading in high school, haha.

Thought it might be a fun way to meet some people my own age with a shared interest in being a book snob 😄 Sound appealing to anyone? Does a club like this already exist in Holland?