You shouldn’t only wash your hands after inserting your tampon — you’ve also got to do it before to prevent all the germs you picked up from making its way to your lady bits.

If there’s discomfort around your vulva and vagina after inserting your tampon, it’s probably not far in enough. Gently push it deeper into you with a finger and you shouldn’t be able to feel a thing after

Letting your soaked tampon sit in your vagina can lead to complications such as bacterial infections and even toxic shock syndrome. Even if your tampon hasn’t been full ‘utilised’, you should switch it for a new one every four hours.

Bacteria from your poop can get lodged onto the string of your tampon and find its way into your vagina or urethra. Naaasty.

Much as a low-absorbency tampon on a heavy flow will result in a leak, a high absorbency tampon on a light flow will just dry out your vagina, which can lead to other issues in the long run. You should also never use a tampon to absorb vaginal discharge.

And by dirty, we mean one with a torn wrapper — because that just means it’s been contaminated by all the other stuff you have in your bag. It may not be nice having to bin a new one but it beats having your women parts get funky.

Its barely-there feeling will make it easy to forget about. However, it’s not only severely unhygienic, but will also result in a horrible odour in and around your vagina.

Text: Adora Wong/CLEO