Loud and Clear

I wonder who discovered this wonderful thing that I have just discovered. And I don’t know why I didn’t discover it earlier. To think of it, it’s been ten years since it all began – how convenient would it have been if I had been adventurous enough to use it then. It would have been ten years of hardly knowing that every month the cycle with repeat itself – the pain, the mood swings, the lethargy, and the lack of appetite – most of it would diminish and I would have been a happier and a less bothered woman – as I am now.

I remember seeing it first when I was 14. It looked like a little bullet – and we were so fascinated – I mean why wouldn’t we be- after being used to seeing white rectangular lumps, these tiny things the size of half my index finger seemed fascinating – how could that tiny thing soak up so much, it was totally incomprehensible to us. So my other 14 year old friends and I unwrapped one – with wide eyed wonder… as if a mystery was getting solved - and put it in a mug of water and ‘PLOP’ it swelled up in an instant and became more that double its size. I think that that sight was what scared me out of my wits…just imaging inserting it was unthinkable then – and then the fact that it would double up in size was downright scary.

Then one day I grew up. I became 24 and that sight that beheld my gaze and horror ten years ago was suddenly very blurry and the misery of handling the trouble every month with my hectic work schedule very clear. So I went for it yet again, and managed to use it…and now I am relieved, I am happy, and I have almost forgotten the worry that would make me squirm in the middle of the night.

It’s probably the only good thing that man discovered that was a gift to us women. It all started with something to plug in wounds of the French soldiers. I agree there was no intention to make it what it is today – but that’s how the tampon came into being and made comfortable my monthly being.
Hail OB!! Hail the Tampon!! Loud and clear!!! I need to ‘whisper’ no more.