A Doctor Is Facing Backlash After Tweeting About Feeling Sick Because He Had To Remove A Woman’s Tampon

An A&E doctor at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is facing backlash online after he tweeted about having to remove a woman’s tampon using both ‘crying laughing’ and ‘nauseated face’ emojis. With women facing intense stigma around gynaecological health and periods in general, his tweet has been condemned as unprofessional and inappropriate.

‘Just removed a tampon that had been in for over a week. How’s your evening going? 😂🤢,’ Charles Style tweeted last night. Despite hundreds of responses, he is yet to delete the tweet or apologise.

‘What a misogynistic post,’ one social media user responded. ‘Why be a doctor if you’re going to be disgusted by something that half the patients you treat may potentially experience?'

‘Will never understand medical professionals who go home and tweet about patients they encountered. It’s a violation of privacy and makes me not trust healthcare workers,’ another added.

As well as making women feel as if they can’t trust male doctors, the tweet has also highlighted the important of removing stigma around women’s health issues especially in life-endangering circumstances such as this one.

‘Sorry but in what way is this acceptable to tweet about?’ one woman replied to Styles. ‘The amount of Healthcare professionals laughing about this is disgusting. You should be ashamed, imagine how she would feel is she saw this?! What it someone else has this problem and was discouraged by seaming help?!’

According to medical news today, having a tampon stuck inside the vagina is relatively common. However, since it can result in toxic shock syndrome (TSS) it’s hugely important to get it removed by a professional as soon as possible. The risk of getting TSS is increased by ‘using tampons – particularly if you leave them in for longer than recommended or you use "super-absorbent" tampons’, according to the NHS website. ‘TSS gets worse very quickly and can be fatal if not treated promptly,’ it reads. ‘But if it's diagnosed and treated early, most people make a full recovery.’

For those who have had a tampon get stuck, seeking medical advice can be embarrassing. Seeing tweets like Styles then has only heightened that anxiety. ‘I had a tampon stuck inside me for two months once without realising,’ says Amy*. ‘I only noticed once I developed a smell, which wasn’t for at least a month. It didn’t smell horrible, just kind of musty. I was told it was most likely bacterial vaginosis so sought over the counter help but once the smell didn’t go I went to my doctor who performed an exam and found it.

‘Seeing that doctors tweet made me feel really lucky I had a female doctor, she made me feel so comfortable even though it was obviously not a nice job for her to do,’ Amy continued. ‘To be honest, I can’t imagine the smell after leaving a tampon in for one week would even be that bad. By the time mine was removed it was horrible I won’t lie, I mean it had been two months for God’s sake… but one week would be nothing compared to that? This doctor sounds like he’s not fit for the job is he’s this squeamish and the fact he’s making women feel judged over nothing is quite scary. If a woman saw this and was then too embarrassed to seek help, it’s potentially life threatening.’

According to the General Medical Council’s website, Style only qualified as a doctor in July this year with some fellow doctors commenting to educate him on how unprofessional it is to discuss patients on social media. ‘Learn this early in your career, tweets like this aren’t ok. Remove it now. Humiliating patients on SoMe is never ok,’ Dr Stephanie DeGiorgio replied to Styles.

Hopefully, he learns from his mistakes quickly and develops some empathy for women’s health issues. We face enough stigma as it is without feeling shamed online by the people meant to protect our health.

*name has been changed

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