Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Seeing a couple period post I got to thinking what do transguys use until it stops.  Tampons work best for me with pads I see them whenever I pee and feel them all the time, playing sports is really bad.  The menstruate cup requires you to handle your parts down there way too much for me  to ever get comfortable with them.  With tampons I can put one in and forget about bleeding until I need to change.

I never learned how to use a tampon correctly so I stick with pads.

Back when I still had shark week, I used tampons for the same reason - out of sight, out of mind.

I tried to use a tampon once and figured it would be better....but right when I was about to use it, the realization of me actually having to shove something in me (when I shouldn't have a hole to do that in the first place) just made my dysphoria skyrocket and messed with me mentally so I just stick with pads with extra layers of toilet paper.

I can't deal with underwear (the way they fit and feel, and/or having to deal with stains on them), so tampons. Also there is less looking at them, which is a plus.

surprised to see no cup users, they actually made my icky feelings about having a flow better. i cramped less, i didn't have to think of all the weirdness that pads/tampons made me feel for some reason. i loved my cups so much

I used to wear pads growing up until I hit about 20. I switched to tampons. I had/have a problem using tampons and I'm not sure if it has to do with my dysphoria because I absolutely hate penetration

I used tampons. I hated the smell and feel of pads. I don't need to worry about it anymore but I did bring some when I moved just in case. Tampons are harder to find here. I never bothered with cups out of laziness.

I didn't switch to a cup until the last couple years or so of my period, but it was so liberating when I did. It took a long time to be willing to try it. It requires a lot of handling one's parts, but it's worth it. It cuts down on mess and waste, and it made me feel like what my body was doing was normal. Also it was kind of cool to be able to know how many ounces were coming out.

Before that I used tampons.

I don't have a period but I am a huge advocate of cloth pads. The washing isn't really that nasty (I mean you'd have to touch the blood anyway to remove a disposable and it would sit in the trash...) and it's so much softer and more comfortable than the plastic rubbing against the bits.

I don't experience shark week any more, thankfully... but when I did, I used pads.

I couldn't stand tampons and would only use them when they were absolutely necessary, like when I wanted to go swimming. It's not the insertion that bothered me - it's the removal. I couldn't stand fishing them out when they were saturated. Ugh!

Had to use pads because I have vulva vestibulitis though I don't know where it comes from because I think I've had it my entire life. Couldn't use tampons really because it hurt too much inserting them but I preferred them since it felt more normal of not feeling something being there or something happening. Looked into cups but never got one for some reason.

I have had an oopho so I don't have it anymore and frankly, it's one of the most relieving experience I've felt really. Like finally my body is acting the way it's supposed to be.

I can feel tampons, even the tiny ones, so that's 1000x more dysphoric than pads to me, so I use pads.

Never even tried tampons, the mere thought about shoving some foreign matter inside me was just plain disturbing.

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.

Quote from: makipu on July 03, 2014, 01:51:01 PM
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.

Hah, I remember that when I got mine for the first time I was also in this odd psychological denial in that I didn't even connect or understand what was really happening to me. People had to explain it to me and it wasn't because I was uneducated - I knew what female puberty was but for some reason it never really occurred to me that it would happen to me personally and when it did happen I pretended everything was normal. I hated the feeling of pads though, like just being reminded it was there and well, just overall the sensation when they began filling up. Didn't help that I bled like a pig because I had endometriosis and it didn't get better until I got on birth control pills though even then I still hated it despite being much better pain-wise and bleeding-wise.

It was just a horrible experience when I tried tampons.  I hate pads but tampons are just a break down waiting to happen.  I can't even imagine a cup. Having to acknowledge that I can put something up there is just... yeah I'm going to stop now.

I'm a total cup convert because then I can just ignore my gear for ~10-12 hours (FAR more to do with laziness and forgetfulness than dysphoria) and you don't have to load your trashcan with used pads or tampons which is THE WORST SMELL. I literally prefer the miasma of roadkill to that smell.  :-X

You do have to be pretty comfortable with your genitals, or at least willing to tolerate it for a minute or two, to use one, though. And when I can't bring myself to use it because of the weird blend of laziness and NOEP I reluctantly use pads.

Hi folks, i guess this is kind of off topic which i apolagise for. Im new to this site and wondered if any of you had any advice on binding? Im live in the uk and i am having a problem finding a suitable/comfortable way to bind. Any advice would be more than appreciated. Thanks, jamie.

You should probably head over there: https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/board,324.0.html and do some reading or post your questions there.
Oh, and welcome! ;D

On topic: tampons, everything else is messy and yucky for me. And, seeing that I got the anatomy and it's not going away any time soon, I rather take the least fuzzy alternative. Very interested in cups though, but I never get around ordering one...

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.

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

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.

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 :P Nonetheless, I found it unsanitary and sometimes just refused to wear pads and stayed in the shower. DX

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.

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

A 47 inch samsung full HD TV.

Shark Week begins August 10th.

I always called it the starving time.

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.

Quote from: makipu on July 03, 2014, 01:51:01 PM
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.

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

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.

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!