Celia then discovered a strange object inside the tampon. Photo / TikTok @cealpee
A woman has been left shaken after she claims to have uncovered a "terrifying" discovery inside her tampon.
TikTok user Celia took to the app with a video of her opening up the strange looking tampon in the hopes to find some answers.
She opened up the Tampax brand applicator tampon and allegedly discovered a small metal item hiding inside.
Tampax applicator tampons are originally from the USA, and are also available in Australia.
"So I was just going to the bathroom like normal, and I was putting in a tampon" she started the video.
"I grabbed one from my Tampax bag because there is a shortage, so I've been using Tampax, not my organic, and look at this.
"You can clearly see that the colour of the actual tampon, they're all purple, every single Tampax is purple, these are supers.
"Then I found this. I thought, maybe it's a new colour, so then I took it out and um, what?
"So I just opened it up, what is that?" she asked, as she took out the strange metal object.
The now-viral video has since racked up 8.4 million views and nearly 9000 comments from concerned followers.
"My brain instantly said tracker" someone said.
"Imagine some younger girl not knowing that isn't unusual and using it" another commented.
"I know accidents happen, but women already have enough to worry about."
"I'm scared" said another commenter.
"Stay safe ladies."
In a follow up video, Celia explained that she did not actually buy the box of tampons from a store, but claims her friend who works at the Tampax factory gave her some directly.
"Tampax send me a prepaid mailing bag to send them the tampon and the contents" she said in another video.
"Then they included a letter from Tampax saying that they were going to send me compensation, I was not expecting that, I don't know what that entails.
"I only posted this video, because if someone who was inexperienced got this in their hands, and didn't realise there was something wrong with it, and they started to use it, I feel like that's really scary.
"This should not be happening, no matter if you were given it or if you bought it, it shouldn't have left the factory. It doesn't matter how I got it in my hands.
"I think that's the main issue here."
Many people speculated that the metal inside the tampon was part of the testers and possibly slipped through accidentally.
"It looks like it could be a defect detection tester?" someone commented.
"So they put it in on the line to see if their quality control system picks up that it is defective."
"Quality control tester" another person said.
"The 'SS' is for stainless steel. It's non magnetic and harder to detect."
A spokesperson for Procter & Gamble, the owner of Tampax, said: "We are aware of the TikTok video and are looking into the matter. This is a sample from our quality control process we believe was accidentally gifted from an employee to a friend. Quality control samples are not sold to consumers."
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