Women are always dealt a very tough deal by nature.
From periods and childbirth, to constant hormonal imbalance and menopause, all through sexism and the gender pay gap.
It’s almost as if women can never win in this world – but perhaps one of the worst cards that women in the world have been dealt is the fact that your menstrual supplies can quite literally kill you.
Mother of two Amanda Stanley from North Shore, Massachusetts, started experiencing flu-like symptoms and immense pain just a day after she found a tampon lining after going to the toilet.
At first she thought nothing of it, however, once she made it to hospital, the doctors began to worry.
They first thought it to be Lyme disease, but Amanda told them she hadn’t been bitten by any ticks to her knowledge.
Her temperature was a staggering 104 F.
Amanda’s blood test showed that she had a streptococus bacteria in her blood, Strep A.
The doctors were still bamboozled as to how it had gotten into her system – until she mentioned the tampon incident and then it all started to make sense.
With a further examination, more pieces of the tampon were discovered and the diagnosis was confirmed as Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS).
To her horror, Amanda was told that had she waited 24 hours later to come in to the hospital, the condition may have proven to be fatal.
She was certainly lucky to arrive when she did.
TSS is a very rare condition, which manifests when bacteria enters the bloodstream.
The most common cause of TSS is failure to change a tampon, or accidentally leaving an old tampon rather than replacing it.
Amanda never thought that it could have happened to her, as she was very meticulous in her personal hygiene and always changed her tampons on time.
However, she turned out very lucky – if she hadn’t spotted the piece of tampon after going to the toilet, the condition may have gotten undiagnosed and much worse.
The most common symptoms of TSS are very much like those of the flu.
That’s why many women tend to ignore them until they get to the stage of unbearable pain, which can only make things worse.
Other symptoms to look out for a fatigue, low blood pressure, a very high fever, nausea and vomiting and a sunburn-looking rash.
If you see any of those signs, make sure to get yourself checked out straightaway – that way, you can be sure whether it’s TSS or not and get properly seen to.
Amanda has now made it her mission to spread the word about the symptoms of TSS and prevent its spread to other women from misinformation.
Ignorance can kill in those cases and if you think it can’t happen to you, neither did Amanda – and yet it did!
To help Amanda in her mission, make sure to share her story with all your female friends and have them watch out for the symptoms of TSS.
