Are We All Low-Key Flushing Our Tampons?

It’s natural to sometimes wonder how the other half lives — and for me personally, that refers to people who’ve never flushed their tampons. I imagine that what they sacrifice in convenience, they must gain in the self-assurance that comes with knowing they’re doing the “right” thing, protecting their municipal sewer systems from disfiguring clogs or, worse, a dreaded “fatberg.” They never have to face that twinge of guilt that arises every time they pull out a tampon only to let it slip easily into the toilet below, where both — the tampon and the guilt — can be tidily flushed away.

If I’m being honest, I always suspected that never-flushers were few and far between. I labored under this delusion until stumbling upon a @dylanpcarlino TikTok video in which he speculates that if he were a girl, he’d flush his tampons. “Sure,” I thought — only to open the comments section and be hit by a dose of reality as cold as toilet water itself. The comments were a battleground of shock, disappointment, and confusion, somewhat evenly split between those who have never flushed a tampon in their sweet, virtuous lives and those who’ve basically never not flushed.

So how many people flush their tampons, really? Researchers haven’t spent too much time looking into this topic (sexism). The surveys that have asked people to divulge their tampon-disposal habits are mostly old and low-quality, and have found that anywhere from 20% to 85% of people flush. From an even lower-quality poll I ran amongst my group chats and IG followers, I’d say the 85% figure is marginally more accurate. While my IG following seemed relatively evenly split, via text the vast majority of my friends copped to flushing tampons, at least while they’re out and about or at work (many throw them out properly at home to avoid causing problems in their own plumbing lines).

People justify flushing in myriad ways. One common thread is convenience. In response to my survey, two people mentioned always flushing at a guy’s house; others said they flush in public bathrooms when the trash can is dirty, inconvenient, or nonexistent. Additionally, several people said they always flush at work, never at home — a working girl’s rebellion.

But a surprising number of people said they were simply unaware that you shouldn’t flush tampons or found out it was a no-no only after flushing had already become a hard-to-break habit. In fact, more than one person I spoke to swore that the tampon instructions used to direct users to flush. This was common enough that, at first, I thought it was the Mandela Effect at play. But a little digging revealed that as recently as the early 2000s, tampon instructions did suggest flushing used products away.

The reasoning among people who never flush was more consistent. Across the board, they were terrified of causing plumbing issues. Many of them are homeowners or grew up in a house with “old pipes” or a septic tank; two separate respondents said their parents put the “fear of God” into them, turning them into never-flushers at an early age. They speculated that a tampon-induced clog would be embarrassing, disgusting, annoying, or expensive to deal with.

As it turns out, they’re completely correct. Plumbers really, really don’t want you to flush tampons — or those stupid wipes that claim to be flushable, FWIW.

Tampons not only don’t break apart in water; they actively expand. “Pipes in older homes can have rough surfaces, where tampons can catch and create a clog,” explains Wayne Malenfant, who works with Avon Plumbing and Heating in Avon, CT. They can also build up in septic tanks, which, in both cases, leads to backups. (Two people who responded to my IG poll confessed to experiencing plumbing issues possibly tied to tampon flushing; it converted one of them into a never-flusher but not the other.)

Even in places with newer toilets, there could be weak water flow, poor drainage, or uneven spots where pipes are joined together, all of which could make it more likely for tampons to cause issues. Malenfant’s advice: only flush toilet paper and human waste, and use the trash for anything else.

So that’s the truth. Tampon flushers are piggybacking on the virtue of never-flushers, relying on their good habits to keep pipes and sewer systems clear. For people who’ve always enjoyed the convenience of flushing, this may be a bitter pill to swallow — but now we all know how our poor toilets have felt all this time.