Latest news with #tampon
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Woman who accidentally left tampon in for a MONTH lays bare horrifying symptoms
A woman who accidentally left her tampon in for a whole month has laid bare the gruesome symptoms that she endured while doctors struggled to figure out what was wrong with her. Reality star Savannah Miller, 24, who is best known for starring in season seven of Netflix 's The Circle, opened up about the 'traumatizing' ordeal during a recent chat with the New York Post. She explained that despite feeling sick and developing a horrific smell in her private area, medical professionals failed to uncover what was causing it across multiple visits. The TV star said it began after she put in a tampon during a night out with friends near the end of her period. But the next morning, she had 'forgot she put it in' so she never took it out. 'There was no blood and the string had disappeared, I didn't see it,' she told the publication. Savannah said the first thing she noticed was that a strange smell started to come from her vagina... and as the days went on it got so bad she compared it to a dead animal. 'It smelled like a rat crawled inside of me while I was sleeping and died,' she confessed. She thought the smell meant she was still on her period so she ended up putting in another tampon, which likely pushed the other further back. She soon started to feel run-down and itchy down there, so she went to her college clinic. Doctors tested her for STDS but everything came back negative. 'They thought it was just [bacterial vaginosis], but I knew there was no way people walked around with BV smelling like this,' added the 24-year-old. It wasn't until her third visit when the doctor noticed traces of cotton in her urine that they realized what was causing her mysterious illness - nearly a month after she initially put the tampon in. 'It was so far up in my cervix there was no shot I was gonna see it. The doctor had to fish it out of my ovaries,' she said. In the end, she said she's grateful she didn't develop Toxic Shock Syndrome, and she hopes that speaking out about it will help prevent others from suffering the same fate. Back in June, Shannon Toner spoke exclusively to the Daily Mail about how she almost died from using a tampon at age 15 after developing Toxic Shock Syndrome. 'It put me in a coma and nearly took my life - I hadn't even had my period for a full year yet,' Shannon, who was on a family vacation at the time, explained. Shannon revealed she began to feel ill in the evening after she landed, but she assumed it was just jet lag and tried to sleep it off. But she woke up the next day with extreme symptoms, including: vomiting, diarrhea, a fever, and fatigue. 'I was brought to the doctor that afternoon, given a shot for nausea, and sent home,' she continued. 'I continued to deteriorate and was brought back to the doctor later that same day.' 'My last memory is collapsing in the office and laying on the ground because it hurt too much to sit up,' she recalled. 'My heart rate was extremely high, my blood pressure was dangerously low, and I was rushed to the ICU. I didn't wake up until a few days later.' Toxic Shock Syndrome is a 'rare complication of certain types of bacterial infections,' according to MayoClinic. It can be fatal. 'Risk factors for toxic shock syndrome include skin wounds, surgery, and the use of tampons and other devices, such as menstrual cups and birth control sponges or diaphragms.' Shannon was given a 50/50 chance of survival and while she ultimately recovered, she suffered from the after effects for years. 'I dealt with memory loss, anxiety, attention issues, and depression. My periods also became extremely painful,' she explained.
Entrepreneur
18-07-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
How 2 Stanford Grads Turned an Idea Into a WNBA Partnership
Amanda Calabrese and Greta Meyer turned a college project into Sequel, the first spiral tampon, now backed by a WNBA partnership with the Indiana Fever. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The tampon hasn't changed much since it was invented over 80 years ago by a male doctor named Earle Haas. That might suggest the design was flawless — but ask the people who use them, and you'll hear a different story. "Period products are unreliable in critical moments," says athlete and entrepreneur Amanda Calabrese. "For athletes, that could be sporting moments, but for a mom, it could be dropping your kids off at school, or running through the airport." Instead of accepting the status quo, Calabrese and her Stanford classmate and fellow athlete, Greta Meyer, set out to rethink the product entirely. In 2019, they created Sequel, the world's first spiral tampon, engineered by and for people who actually use it. Related: How This Tampon Company Overcame Investor Knowledge Gaps and Raised $11.2 Million Engineering meets experience The idea for Sequel wasn't born out of a desire to make money — it was about solving a real problem. Calabrese and Meyer met at Stanford, where they both majored in mechanical engineering. But their connection ran deeper than academics. Both were high-level athletes: Meyer played Division I lacrosse for Stanford, while Calabrese is a six-time national champion in lifesaving, which is a whole other story. "I've competed around the world wearing nothing but a star-spangled Team USA bikini, sometimes for 10-hour events on the beach," Calabrese says. "You're running, sweating, constantly going from wet to dry, and then add your period on top of that." Meyer had similar frustrations during her time on the lacrosse team. She and her teammates, often wearing white home skirts, frequently struggled with unreliable period products. "In the locker room, they were always talking about how they could improve the experience," Calabrese recalls. One day in a shared entrepreneurship class, Meyer approached Calabrese with an idea: why not build a better period product? "She pointed out that we were both engineering students and athletes, and that this would be perfect for our Entrepreneurship project," Calabrese says. "I was immediately on board." Calabrese and Meyer were so committed to the idea that they expanded it into their senior capstone. At Stanford, capstones require a working proof of concept. So the duo went above and beyond, raising $50,000 in grant funding to continue the project after graduation and prove its potential beyond the classroom. While most college grads spent that first post-grad summer relaxing or traveling, Calabrese and Meyer traded in pool parties for manufacturing plant tours. "We spent that summer refining our idea and learning through Stanford's accelerator, StartX," Calabrese says. "We knew we'd need funding to kick off R&D, so we focused on crafting our pitch, and not long after COVID, we closed a $1 million pre-seed round to get things off the ground." Related: WNBA Legend Lisa Leslie on Building Legacy Beyond the Game From the lockeroom to the lab Starting with a clear problem gave the co-founders direction, but there were more questions to be answered before they could start developing solutions. "Now we had to ask: Why aren't these products doing their job?" Calabrese asks. "And what exactly is the job they're supposed to do?" After conferring with countless female athletes, they determined that the primary issue was what the industry calls "bypass leakage." Upon deeper reflection, the duo realized this issue was the byproduct of a design flaw. "Tampons have vertical channels that go top to bottom on the outside of the product," Calabrese explains. "This effectively funnels the fluid away from the absorbent core and down the side of the product." Recognizing the mechanical inefficiency of this outdated design, the pair came up with the concept for Sequel's masthead product: the spiral tampon. By introducing a spiral into the tampon's construction, they created a horizontal flow path alongside the existing vertical channels. This design increases surface area, promotes even absorption and helps prevent premature leaks by disrupting the downward flow. "We spent years testing the fluid mechanics behind the design," Calabrese says. "I even have a video from our dorm room where we were illustrating those concepts." Eventually, they started hand-pressing prototypes. "Greta was in a full cleanroom suit, manually applying heat and pressure to create and test each one," Calabrese recalls. The capstone goes courtside Since then, Sequel has flourished, becoming the first tampon partnership in the history of the NCAA by sponsoring Stanford athletics. They've worked with Athletes Unlimited, USL and Unrivaled. Now, the company is taking its next big step, partnering with one of the WNBA's premier teams, the Indiana Fever. The founders reached out to Fever star Lexie Hull, who attended Stanford herself, and left with an NCAA national championship and a bachelor's AND master's in management science and engineering to show for it. "Lexie remembered hearing about us as an example in one of her entrepreneurship classes," Calabrese shares. "We reached out to her to be our first WNBA ambassador, and she was so excited." The partnership offers clear financial upside for Sequel, but for Calabrese, the intangibles matter even more. "These athletes are role models," she says. "Thousands of little girls across the country look up to players on the Fever and see themselves in these athletes." She notes that the first period product someone uses is often the one they stick with for life. "Getting to work with real-life superheroes like Lexie Hull means everything to the young audience we want to reach," Calabrese says. "But beyond that, we're normalizing conversations around tampons and period care, ultimately aiming for them to be seen as essential game day gear, just like soccer cleats." After six years of research, testing, development, and navigating FDA commercial standards, Sequel is beginning to make waves in an industry that hasn't evolved in decades. "We believe Sequel can dramatically improve the experience of athletes and fans everywhere," Calabrese says. "From little girls playing softball to the moms cheering them on, everyone deserves better." With its spiral design and athlete-driven mission, Sequel isn't just redesigning a product. It's redefining the conversation around period care.
