Aug 25 2016

Swimming While On Your Period

Published by

Beach Day

Girls enjoying a day at the beach

This is a very frequent question amongst young girls that just started their periods.

Some times we do not really have a choice. We may be competing in a water sport, or practicing for an event, or be on Holliday at the beach or lake with family and friends.

The first thing you must understand is that your period is not a disability or an illness. Except for swimming with sharks without a wetsuit, there is nothing you cannot do. Hundreds of millions of women around the world are having their periods right now. And they keep on doing what they are doing. Police women, soldiers, athletes, gymnasts, tennis players, dancers, cheer leaders, beauty queens, students, teachers, shop assistants, pilots, doctors surgeons, mothers, wives, politicians, secretaries, models, TV and movie starts, news anchors, farmers, miners and every other conceivable position. And they just keep on doing whatever they do.

Light exercise may even do you some good while you are on your period. It may make you feel better and relieve cramps.

But how do you swim while you are on your period?

If you can walk around without using a pad, tampon or menstrual cup, you can swim without any protection. If you have to use protection to prevent you from bleeding over yourself, you must use protection when you are in water.

There is an urban ledgend that your period stops in the water. This is NOT true. No bodily function stops in water. Your uterus and body does not even know what water is. And the water pressure that shallow is the same as outside the water, so NO, the water pressure will not push your flow back in. What does happen is that the water will wash away the blood so it may not look like you are bleeding. But as soon as you get out, you will start staining your costume bottoms.

If you are using tampons or menstrual cups, you can just swim like you will do on any other day. Make sure you tuck the tampon string away to stop it from hanging out of your costume bottoms. Push the string into your vagina behind your tampon, put the string between your lips, or pull it up behind you in your ass crack. Professional athletes and models will often cut the string, or push the tampon in upside down so that the string is on top inside. If you are not comfortable digging the tampon out of you when you do this, just did not even try this.

Sports or Active branded tampons may work better for you when you are active. They are blender and conforms better to your body shape and changes when you participate in sports and are active.

Your vagina is not a gaping hole in your body. It is normally sealed pretty well so that bath, pool, sea , lake or river water will not enter when you swim. So your vagina and the tampon will stay dry in the water. Just check and change as regularly as you would normally.

If you are using pads, you cannot let it get wet. You can wade in shallow water, spend time on the shore or side with your friends, sit on the side or whatever. As soon as the pad will get wet, it will absorb a lot of water, the adhesive will loosen, the pad may fall out, break up, release its contents or even worse, get so heavy that it will pull down your costume bottoms down when you get out, or fall out.

If your mom or guardian do not like you to use tampons, talk to them about the issues you have when you have to swim. Perhaps you can come to an agreement where she will allow you to use tampons when you swim or participate in sport.

Every woman and girl should know how to use a tampon or menstrual cup, even if they do not use them often or at all. Please do not wait until you need to use it before figuring out how to use it. This is recipe for stress and worry.

For your own piece of mind, wear dark colored shorts over your costume when you are not swimming. That way you have one less worry. Remember the sun screen and enjoy your time with friends and family at the water.

Comments Off on Swimming While On Your Period