What do you use during your shark week?

[Frank]

Tampons were too traumatizing and pads felt like diapers so I just ignored it and wore a single or two pair of underwear which I just disposed of when done. Unsanitary? Yes. Disgusting? Probably. Saved my sanity though...kind of.

[Ryan55]

I used pads, just cause tampons made my dysphoria worst, did not want to penetrate anything down below, luckily my periods were all messed up and only got them like once every three months

[devention]

Tampons. I've used pads in the past, and they were ok, I guess. Not very comfortable, but I'm a heavy bleeder when shark week rolls around, so I felt a little more secure in them. But I no longer own underwear that works with them. I still have a ton tho. Packrat fever.

[Xenguy]

I'm on hormones and don't have a shark week anymore, but when I did, I used only pads.... Mostly because the idea of putting anything up there freaked me out. XD However, I didn't mind cause it was really irregular and came every 2-4 months, and stayed for about 3 or 2 days Nonetheless, I found it unsanitary and sometimes just refused to wear pads and stayed in the shower. DX

[Hex]

Before my weeks stopped I used over night pads -_- tried tampons and they, no matter how hard I tried, would hit my cervix and send rockets of white searing pain up to my head it hurt so bad. (learned early on my uterus was flipped weird and my cervix always sits low)
And I didn't really learn about the cups until last year and by then I just didn't wanna fiddle with a new thing so hadn't tried em.

[FTMKyle]

I totally thought this post was about discovery channels's shark week. I've never heard of a period being called that. lol

[Nygeel]

A 47 inch samsung full HD TV.

Shark Week begins August 10th.

[Alexthecat]

I always called it the starving time.

[Berserk]

When shark week came for the first time for me my mom first handed me a tampon. I had no sweet clue what to do with it and was horrified that it was actually supposed to go in somewhere and started balling. I tried once or twice again after that but was always super painful and terrible, always stuck with pads instead.

[pianoforte]

Believe it or not but I have actually never used any pads or tampons (I don't even know what they look like) because during puberty I was completely unaccepting the very fact that something so disgusting was happening to me. So I pretended I didn't have it and literally survived with LOTS of toilet papers/cottons and what not. Apart from the fact that I was bleeding like crazy, if I were to wear something only designed for that female problem it would have made me worse and much more dysphoric so I suffered using until I got on Depo Provera. And man, did that mess up my poor bones.

If I were to personally compare, wearing pads/tampon equaled wearing a bra; which I also never wore before binding.

^ This is what I'm kinda feeling/doing now. I have been on birth control that made me not have to deal with it for about 5 years, but lately it's starting to come back and I'm just in complete and total denial.

I can't even imagine using a cup, I feel like that would cause huge amounts of dysphoria for me from handling unabsorbed byproducts X______X It's kinda like how I'm more afraid of spiderwebs than actual spiders.

[Kyler]

I was a pad user because I definitely could not imagine sticking anything up my bits back then.

[FindingJames]

I tried using tampons a few times because that's what my friends who were girls used but it felt so uncomfortable even before I came out as trans or even accepted it myself. I mostly used pads for the longest time, but now I just use toilet paper. I stopped with the pads because 1) they get gross fast especially in gym class, and 2) I would always get dysphoric when I would look down and see a bloody pad. Also just using something that is made for females made me feel awful. So now I just roll up a good amount of tp just like when you do to wipe and then I make sure it's nice and snug against my body. Now I don't have to see anything bloody because it literally just falls into the toilet when I start to pee, it doesn't move around nearly as much as pads, it's not geared directly toward females, I don't have to touch my parts, it lasts a good 2-4 hours without leaking (unless the flow is particularly heavy), and I don't have to shove it up a hole I shouldn't even have as far as my brain is concerned.

[xsmittyx]

When i'was in my 20s I was diagnosed w/endometriosis...I had profoundly painful periods...EVERY TWO WEEKS!! I did my
own research and quit using tampons--and everything straightened itself out. I sort of hated pads though, not for any queasiness due to seeing my blood--i had no issue w/that...but pads gave me a rash.

Ended up switching to cloth pads and menstrual cup. This was a great switch for me  in terms of my physical comfort and as an environmentalist. Also putting bleachy-white dioxin laden cotton in and around the lower bits can't be good! I'm glad I don't bleed anymore, but the last bunch of years menstruating were much more pleasant than my first bunch!