On a different note, you may have heard soldiers have used tampons to stuff in the bleeding wounds of their comrades.
Because tampons have been included in ‘care boxes’ from civilians here, sent to our female soldiers, some of these boxes have detoured into the possession of male soldiers.
OTOH, maybe this is all legend -
Many years ago I was involved in a coating project at the Duck Creek sewage facility outside of Garland TX, the workers at the plant gave tampons a nickname, the called them white mice.