An Indiana mom of 2 pushed for the exam that discovered the menstrual product after doctors dismissed her pelvic pain as a bacterial infection
- Indiana mom Anna Osborn struggled with pelvic pain that she said doctors dismissed as a urinary tract infection
- When the pain didn’t go away, she pushed for a physical exam — where her doctor discovered a tampon that had gotten stuck in her vagina
- Osborn was treated for Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), and says she guesses the tampon could have been inside her for up to a year
An Indiana mom developed a debilitating sickness that doctors struggled to diagnose — until they discovered an old tampon that may have been inside her for up to a year.
Anna Osborn, 30, began struggling with severe pelvic pain, which doctors chalked up to a urinary tract infection, in October 2023. She was prescribed antibiotics, but “every time I finished an antibiotic dose, I immediately started getting sick again,” the therapist said, according to The Daily Mail. “I knew my body was fighting something. Doctors just couldn’t figure it out.”
She said her symptoms were dismissed as having “a low pain tolerance or I’m being overdramatic. I was just brushed off by a ton of doctors.” Meanwhile, she says, “It felt like my organs were shutting down. There was no other way to describe it.”
Doctors finally performed a vaginal exam in February of 2024, after Osborn expressed concern that perhaps her IUD had shifted, causing the pain. The exam, she said, left her and the doctor “traumatized.”
“The doctor had never seen anything like this before. She saw a little piece of something and thought, ‘Maybe this is endometriosis,’ ” Osborn said of the doctor’s initial reaction. But when her physician “started pulling on it, I heard her say. “Oh my God, I think it’s a tampon.’ She pulled the entire thing out and we were both in complete shock.”
The last time she had used a tampon was shortly after she had the IUD inserted in 2023, and by her estimates, that meant the tampon could have been inside her for up to a year.
“When they put the IUD in, I was already not feeling well,” Osborn told the Daily Mail. “It’s so hard to tell, but knowing I had so many issues before this, I would date it back as far as six months to a year.”
“I didn’t notice it at all [during sex]. The body tissue had grown over it. I didn’t feel anything. I even had a [pap] smear in the year before and nothing was mentioned,” Osborn added.
She was promptly treated for Toxic shock syndrome (TSS), a rare, but potentially fatal condition where toxins spread into the bloodstream. The Cleveland Clinic explains that while it’s often associated with tampon use, it can affect anyone, causing “severe organ damage or death.”
“I didn’t even know toxic shock syndrome was real and actually happened to people,” Osborn said. “I just asked ‘Is my body rotting from the inside out?’ I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. It was so scary.”
Osborn made a full recovery, something she thinks might not have happened had she not “pushed” doctors to find what was going on.
“I’m glad I didn’t just give up and go with the UTI diagnosis. I really felt the need to advocate for myself and my health,” she said. “It kept me alive. I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”