Science

Painkiller Tampon

by AliceKim posted Nov 12, 2022
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Name of invention

 

Painkiller Tampon

 

Date

 

9/25/2022

 

 

 

Contents

 

Invention Motivation

 

Most girls, on average, start their first menstruation around the

age of 12. Menstruation is a physiological phenomenon in which

the thickened uterine mucosa comes off and is discharged

through the vagina along with bleeding. We are more familiar

with the word period' than 'menstruation'. Period is painful even before it starts, and We call this period pain. So, what causes

period pain? First of all, we can think of it as basically due to

intrauterine bleeding. Not only this, but it can also be caused by

the secretion of a substance called 'prostaglandin'. Just before

menstruation, the endometrium releases a substance called

prostaglandin, which causes strong contractions of the uterine

muscles and causes pain similar to colic during childbirth.

However, not everyone experiences this kind of pain. The severity of period pain varies from person to person, and some women

experience only mild abdominal discomfort, while others suffer

from severe vomiting, diarrhea, and back pain that make daily life difficult. I belong to the latter. During the first two days of period, the pain is so severe that it is difficult to lead a smooth daily life without painkillers. However, the use of pain relievers does not

mean that they are immediately effective. 'Advil', which we often take during period, is an oral analgesic; It does not have an

analgesic effect immediately taking it, and the pain-blocking

effect is an average of 4 hours. So, if the pain reappears after

4 hours, you need to take this medicine again or crave the pain.

Based on this experience, I thought about using the function of a tampon that is absorbed through the mucous membrane and

absorbs acupuncture points in the body. Including drugs that can relieve pain in tampons, I thought that absorption of the drug

through the female genital mucosa could provide rapid pain

relief and I wanted to invent a product that can relieve period

pain through drug absorption.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feature

 

The biggest feature of the present invention is that it is possible

to use a smaller dose of the drug than oral administration,

maintain steady drug administration levels, and require less

frequent administration than the oral route. An oral analgesic

takes effect 1 hour after taking it, and the effect is as short as

4 hours. As a result, some people overdose on pain relievers. If

you take an overdose of painkillers, you may become resistant to painkillers, and even if you take painkillers any longer, the pain

may not be relieved and you can also get gastrointestinal

hemorrhage, nephropathy and hepatotoxicity.  Based on this

problem, the biggest feature of the invention I thought of is that

it uses a vaginal administration method rather than an oral

administration method. According to ''The vagina as a route for

drug delivery: a review' (By Sushma Srikrishna, Kinda Cardoso),

the vaginal administration method uses a smaller amount of the drug than oral administration and can achieve similar effects, that it can be kept constant. Through this, despite reducing the

number of administration, a much greater effect than oral

administration can be seen. Vaginal administration literally means inserting the drug through the vagina. Isn't there something that comes to mind when you think about inserting through the vagina during menstruation? right. That's a tampon. Tampons are placed in the vagina to stop bleeding during menstruation. Dip this

tampon with an analgesic and put it inside the vagina to stop our pain faster and safer than oral pain relievers.