Savannah Miller, a reality TV star from season 7 of Netflix’s The Circle, is sharing a cautionary tale after accidentally leaving a tampon inside her for a month. Now 24, Miller recounted the “truly humbling” experience to The Post, describing the symptoms she endured and how doctors eventually discovered the forgotten tampon.
At 22, Miller was a college student finishing her period when she went out with friends. She used a tampon to avoid “spillage,” but the next day, it was gone. “I forgot I put it in, and because there was no blood and the string had disappeared, I didn’t see it,” she said.
Within days, she experienced general malaise, itchiness, and a foul odor. “It smelled like a rat crawled inside of me while I was sleeping and died,” she admitted, leaving her self-conscious in every class. Mistaking it for normal period discharge, she continued using tampons, likely pushing the original one further inside.
Despite visiting the campus clinic multiple times, initial examinations and STD tests showed nothing unusual. It wasn’t until her third appointment that doctors noticed cotton fibers in her urine sample and asked if a tampon could still be inside. To her shock, they discovered the tampon lodged so high in her cervix that she couldn’t see it. “The doctor had to fish it out of my ovaries,” she joked.
Fortunately, Miller did not develop toxic shock syndrome (TSS), a rare but potentially deadly bacterial infection linked to prolonged tampon use. She was prescribed antibiotics as a precaution. TSS, which gained attention in the 1990s, can cause organ failure and death if untreated. While rare, cases like model Lauren Wasser in 2012 highlight the danger: Wasser lost both legs to TSS, and others have suffered long-term health effects.
Miller called the experience “actually traumatizing” but hopes sharing it will raise awareness about the risks of leaving tampons in too long and the importance of regular checks.
