more chance of holding water up an elephants trunk with a twig... (Tampax Tampons)

Member Name: pania22

Product:	Tampax Tampons
Date:	31/07/09 (139 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: erm....

Disadvantages: a plenty.

Firstly my apologies to all the guys out there for writing a review that isn't necessarily considerate to both sexes. Also apologies for 2 moany reviews in a row, I'm normally of such a sunny disposition too!

A male friend asked me a few weeks ago why, when a shampoo product is being advertised on TV they show someone washing their hair. When a razor is being advertised they show someone shaving their legs. When underwear is being advertised they show someone, well, wearing underwear. So why then when Tampons are being advertised do they show a woman playing tennis! After slapping him and telling him he wasn't funny I had a wee chuckle to myself at the thought of what he'd said was in fact very true.

Now, we all know what Tampax (or "thingies" as my embarrassed mother used to call them) are used for and therefore I feel no need to write an introduction on the matter. I'm not going to labour the point, even for the guys. But to me Tampax are the feminine hygiene equivalent of the first ever mobile phone. Chunky, indiscreet and lets be honest, not very good at their job. When I am being "visited" I do not wish the whole world to know it. Tampax may as well carry around a neon flashing light screaming "ON!" Whereas the world of lillet's have long since developed the tampon equivalent of a Samsung flip phone that fits neatly and discreetly in your pocket or in the palm of your hand, Tampax appear to have missed this point and decided that women wish to sneak off to the loo with an inch of packaging poking out either side of their hand.

Environmentally speaking tampons as a whole would never win any awards from Greenpeace. Yet Tampax decide to defeat the world into tampon Armageddon. The paper wrapper isn't an issue. I used to have competitions with myself of how small a ball I could screw it up into. I won on numerous occasions with more and more impressive results. (Yes, I do get out more frequently nowadays for those that are wondering!) However, Tampax market 2 products, both applicator tampons, one that is a shiney cardboard tube (mentionable also for being so embarrassingly hard to flush to the extent the next cubicle occupant will on numerous occasions know exactly what you've been up to) along with a product that is a telescopic plastic tube that pulls out to form a full length applicator. These in my mind are the worst environmental disaster area possible. Aside from the actual tampon itself, which are often found washed up on beaches from our ridiculously environmentally abused sewer system months after their original use, the plastic applicator is wholly unbiodegrable. Yes ok, the plastic can be recycled but honestly, how many are? The wrapper to these isn't of the "delightfully easy to screw up and dispose of" paper type but a crinkly shiny plastic that works its way to many a landfill or even worse out into the environment. I mean c'mon Tampax!!!!! Thousands of women the world over require you on a monthly basis, put a bit of thought into this aspect of it please!!! Numerous market competitors are realising that women don't necessarily require applicators and are preferring nowadays to favour the more discreet, more environmentally friendly non applicator tampons instead.

So how effective are they? Well lets just say you would have more joy holding a gallon of water up an elephants trunk with a twig than you would stemming the menstrual flow with a tampax product. You see unlike, again, market competitors, tampax products have a rather major design flaw. Most tampons have the removal string stitched only half way up the synthetic pad, leaving a sealed top section, that when the pad expands to fit the line of your, ahem, feminine part for want of a more scientific term, forms a leak-proof seal. Tampax however choose to attach their strings near to the top of the pad which provides massive potential for the product to fail and leak, especially in their super flow products. I have been caught out by Tampax on a couple of occasions when I should have felt confident in their use. Their packaging advertises that they are suitable for over night or up to 8 hours use, however I have found anything longer than 5 hours to be risking failure especially if used overnight.

Tampax vary in price for between £1 a box in the likes of Wilkinson when on offer to £3 a box in motorway service stations. Best advice if you are going to purchase the worst feminine hygiene product in the market is to stock up in cheap places and don't forget them when you leave home!!
Personally I choose to use them only when I do exactly that and leave my favoured brand at home, am caught short and they are all the bloomin motorway services stocks.
The menstrual flow is something that many women will be "blessed" with for best part of 40 years of their lives. We will use on average 18 tampax per month, excluding any periods of pregnancy that is roughly 8640 tampons used in the course of our lifetime. Surely therefore we deserve discretion, we deserve comfort, we deserve reliability and the poor environment deserves 8640 environmentally friendly tampons!!!

C'mon tampax WAKE UP!! Your competitors are currently waaay ahead of you and I for one vote with my feet. Sort out the design so we feel more confident in your products, accept that women like to maintain a slight degree of discretion when nipping off to the loo in work hours that we want to be able to sneak your product into our pockets or hands without all and sundry knowing what we are doing and accept the damage that your plastic products in particular are capable of doing to the environment. Sort these issues out and I may well be back but for now I'll shall take my tampon money elsewhere.

Summary: embarrasment waiting to happen, no use except for light flows