About

Tampon Eating Hoax refers to a rumor that women eat their used tampon to re-absorb the blood that they lost. In June 2019 one TikTok user uploaded a viral video explaining that women eat their tampons and due to many other women's confirmation of the statement, some men believed the rumor to be true and many TikTok users began sharing the audio with male friends to film their reaction.

Origin

On June 12th, 2019, TikTok user @caro.trash uploaded a video in which she explains that her male friends didn't know that girls eat their used tampons (shown below). The video gained over 854,000 likes and 36,100 shares in three months.

Spread

In June 2019, TikTok users began commenting on @caro.trash's video confirming that women eat their used tampons and suggesting the different ways in which you can prepare them, i.e. popsicles or tea (shown below).

On July 5th, TikTok user @sophie.quinoa uploaded a video in which she shares the original audio with a group of boys and shows their surprised reactions (shown below, left). The video gained over 404,300 likes and 19,400 shares in two months. On August 29th, @zoelaverne uploaded a similar TikTok video which accumulated over 498,700 likes and 8,500 shares in a month (shown below, right).

In September, many Twitter users began commenting on the rumor. On September 18th, Twitter user @Fake_Aeon^[1]_Air tweeted, "The gag about girls eating their used tampons have been going on for so long that I'm starting to genuinely wonder if they do" (shown below, left). The same day, Twitter user @mangoesandbeans^[2] tweeted that they are becoming confused by the hoax and doubting herself (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References