The stories you’ve heard about people needing to be hospitalized after going to bed with a forgotten tampon inside aren’t just urban myths. TSS is a real, potentially fatal infection. Happily, though, it occurs a lot less often since public warnings first started being issued decades ago. In fact, for those who remove high-absorption tampons and don’t leave them in overnight, incidences have grown shockingly low: about 1 to 3 per 100,000 tampon users yearly.
IMPORTANT FYI: Although it’s pretty unlikely you’ll ever get TSS, here are the symptoms:
High fever
Low blood pressure
Confusion
Low energy
ACT IMMEDIATELY if you experience these because they can progress extremely quickly to stupor, coma, and multiple organ failure. If you even think you might have TSS, get medical attention without delay.