Here’s Why Tampons Aren’t Meant for Hemmorages

Listen, I know you’ve probably heard from a bunch of military friends, or have even done it yourself, that tampons are fantastic to plug holes or feminine pads are great for severe bleeding. And while I admit that I have heard many stories of it working out, that doesn’t mean it was the right tool for the job.

Improvising and adapting are great concepts, but improving and adapting should only happen after every other option has been exhausted. Why prep for failure?

Tampons and pads are NOT sterile. They are clean, but not sterilized.

You may be saying, “I can treat infection later”, sure, but why? There are supplies at our disposal to prevent infection from the get-go. While infection is always a possibility, especially if you’re out in the field in a dirty environment, didn’t get a chance to clean your hands, or the wound, etc., but using a tampon or pad won’t help.

Check out this great article that goes into great depth to analyze why it’s not the best idea to use tampons or pads for first aid.

A heavy flow from aunt flow is not the same as a hemorrhage.

Take it from me, a woman, they are absolutely not the same. I would never dream of using a tampon or pad in any type of first aid usage, except maybe a nose bleed and that’s a big maybe.

Here’s yet another article that disputes the use of feminine hygiene to stop the bleed.

This is yet another fantastic article with plenty of facts to backup everything I’m saying.

To quote from the above link:

The average tampon contains approximately 2 – 2×4 inch pieces of gauze. Kerlix gauze is between 3.6-4.1 yards long. From a cost perspective, tampons also make no sense to stock in an IFAK. If a tampon costs $0.24 each (at bulk Amazon pricing) and is approximately 4” of gauze, it would take $8.64 worth of tampons to equal the length of packing material in one $1.99 roll of Kerlix (at non-bulk pricing). If someone is bleeding to death from a junctional wound, shoving a 4×4 in the wound is not going to accomplish the same thing as 156mmHg pressure from 12 feet of gauze.⁴

Crisis-Medicine.com

Tampons are not meant to stop bleeding, they’re meant to absorb. Those are not the same concept.

Hemostatic gauzes help with clotting by providing pro-coagulant materials or mucoadhesives, thus making it easier for blood to clot. The goal of the packed gauze isn’t to absorb blood, but to encourage clotting. That is exactly how direct pressure works. Provide so much pressure on the bleeding site that blood can’t come out, which allows the clot to form. With no pressure, the blood keeps washing the body’s efforts to form a clot out with the blood. If you need to improvise to pack a wound, there are much better and readily available choices than a tampon, including strips of fabric.

Crisis-Medicine.com

Prep the right gear!

While there’s almost always a time and a place for improvisation, we shouldn’t plan to improvise. Have fun learning improvisation techniques that truly work and can come in handy should we ever need it, but at the same time, prep the right gear and learn the proper skills and techniques.

To repeat, I’m not saying don’t learn alternative ways of doing things, but not every alternative way is going to be even a right way of doing things.

We are preppers, so prep the right gear. Get the gauze, get the tourniquet, get the chest seal, get the quikclot, etc.

And most importantly, take a Stop The Bleed course because that will truly open your eyes to why having the proper supplies is essential to properly stopping and carrying for all different types of bleeds.

I’m not here to tell you what to do, but after all of the first aid training I’ve gone through, I am never going to advise that a tampon or pad are good options…UNLESS it’s the absolute LAST resort and you have exhausted everything else or you’re in a situation in which you don’t have the proper supplies for whatever reason. It’s the last resort, and hope the patient is transported to a hospital ASAP to get proper treatment.

Get the proper first aid education, it makes a difference when it comes to saving a life.