A US gynecologist has issued a warning to women to not put sea sponges in their vaginas after a feminist brand started selling them as an “intuitive alternative” to tampons.
Dr Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN and New York Times columnist slammed the idea after someone tweeted a link to Holy Sponge’s ‘Ritual Menstruation Kit’ that is being sold by US retailer Otherwild.
Gunter posted to Twitter: “Anyone who tells you to put a sea sponge in your vagina wants you to grow more bacteria that causes toxic shock syndrome.
“This is horrific and illegal in the US to promote sponges for periods.”
According to the product description on Otherwild’s website, sea sponges offer “offer bleedin’ folks a gentle, nurturing, and intuitive alternative to bleached cotton tampons.”
The brand says they are not only a natural choice, but also more economical and better for the environment.
The menstruation kit includes “two sustainably-harvested sea sponges sourced by a female diver in Florida,” “organic tea tree oil to disinfect the sponges” at the end of each cycle, a cotton bag to store them between uses, and “hand-picked white sage or lavender” to use for smudging or a bath.
Gunter warned about the risks associated with seas sponges after one woman replied to her on Twitter saying she had heard sea sponges were safer.
Gunter stressed: “Sea sponges are not safer.
“I have quite a bit dedicated to tampon safety and the very small risks and the much greater risks of sea sponges in my book The Vagina Bible.”
Janeen Singer, the owner of Holy Sponges, posted an open letter to Gunter on Instagram, saying she swears by sea sponges.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw5QDrzhny5/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=1m7iarlkyytku
She wrote: “When I first began using sponges, it changed my life. I spent over a year researching them and their history before I created the moon ritual kit. For me, it was a ritual to come back to my body after using tampons and being desensitized to my menstrual cycle…I would love to call this kit what it is — something for menstruation, but I don’t because the FDA doesn’t allow it.’
Janeen also said, “thousands of people have died and been hospitalized because of tampons, but those continue to go unregulated and the FDA does not require that their ingredients be listed.”
Gunter argued they are “untested and potentially very unsafe” as well as “filled with dirt.”
