Folding "Feminine": Syringes

Why are folding syringes called "feminine" syringes? I have

I purchased and used them for years, especially when I am traveling. They tuck away neatly in a suit case, lay flat and are easy to use. As to the riveted eyelet pulling loose, I have had that pull loose from a new bag fresh from the box. That was not true of the older ones with the attached rubber hanger.

I believe the decline in availability goes with the decline in bag sales in general and that is a step backward in our culture. In any case, they have always been traveling enema bags to me and sometimes my best friend!

I think they were marketed as douche bags rather than enema bags. Thus the "feminine' tag. I also find my yellow one a good choice for travel because of its compactness.

It is more of a euphemism for combo douche/enema bag.

I remember occasions when I saw the very thin rubber bag with the snap on it containing the folded syringe. It was lying there on the bathroom sink's counter. Waiting to be used... But for whom was it gonna be used on?!!! I was very scared of this site. Mom might have been getting ready to douche that day. But on the other hand, it might be there for me! I was very scared of getting an enema when I was a child. It brought on terror and embarassment. Yet it started to excited me shortly thereafter. Even if I never admitted liking any aspect of them to myself at the time. I don't think I got many enemas as a child. There's only really one enema that I truly remembered yrs later.

I remember them and I have a fondness for them. I had a girlfriend that had one and I would have a strong reaction whenever I saw it out.

My wife uses these.

My step mom had a pink one, still my favorite

Has anyone tried a folding douche syringe? I bought one with a 5" nozzle and a soft pink bag that holds about 10 ounces. What I've recently discovered is I can fill the bag, lube the nozzle, insert and hold in place with 2 fingers, and sit down on the toilet seat to take a small enema with little fuss, bother or mess.

Nice stuff is it possible to you to make photo(s) from your equipement and open an album with them ?

So the active members can better share your experience .

Use a white or a grey sheet as background so your stuff will appear clearly on your photo(s)

You can had a rule to give an idea of the size .

Yes thats a favorite of both me and the wife we have a pnk one and a yellow one they great to travle with.

Have a old pink travel syringe. It might tear easy, so just keep it for collection.

A rubber syringe for filling lead acid batteries with water can be used, be sure it has never been used on a battery.

I miss the genuine Shy syringes.

My Mom bought a Faultless folding amber latex bag with matching hose and it became my first love.

Since the rubber was so thin, some of these would stretch when filled to hold way more than the advertised 2 qts. Unfortunately, they also had a tendency to pull apart when used often at full capacity.

I guess they fold and fit in a discrete pouch.

I bought one of the translucent amber folding syringes back in my college days. Was wonderful in the way that it folded to fit in a little zippered waterproof pouch. It got used for nearly 20 years and was sad when it finally failed. As for the term "feminine syringe" it just seems more socially acceptable than "douche bag," which was a nasty term to call someone back then.

@Emom Oh how I miss that old amber folding bag I inherited from my mother. I discovered it after she passed. The bag and hose were that wonderful amber color and the nozzles and fittings were black, the clamp metal. What was really nice was the thick black rubber collar at the top that was very sturdy. This all went into a tidy plaid zipper bag. Sadly, despite tender loving care, it finally developed a crack at one of the folds. 😞 As someone mentioned, the replacement was now a pink latex, flimsy, with a rivet where it hangs. Yes, this soon pulled out. I then bought this blue thing that I've heard referred to as a "pumpkin" bag. Not a big fan and it failed as well. I used the good 'ole red water bottle system for quite a while. Then finally there was Amazon. I now have a couple of translucent silicone bags which I love very much. One of these is pretty big (use on my hubby), and one of these holds about a bit less than two quarts which is perfect for me. It's always very satisfying for me when I can take the whole bag.

I remember when I was in high school (when I bought my very first enema bag), the local pharmacy had quite a selection of equipment including something I now know is a Higginson syringe and yes, those orange red rectal tubes in various sizes. That is an era gone by and now all of these big chain "drug stores" have very little of this sort of thing. Even the Fleet Bag Enema has disappeared off the shelves. I was fortunate to buy two cases of these on Ebay (cheap) and I use these for things like coffee or oil enemas, and without the box, they are great for travel and I always have a couple of these with me. It's easy to attach your favorite nozzle with a short piece of silicone tubing.

I have had several of those folding syringes over the years. I have seen them referred to as folding syringes, travel syringes and feminine syringes depending on the brand name. The first one I bought was prior to an out of town training session my new employer sent me to. I bought a Faultless Folding Syringe because it was compact and had a plastic pouch to keep it in for travel

Over the years I have had a yellow and pink one from Faultless and a semi-transparent amber latex one that I don’t remember the brand. They all had the same problem of the hanging grommet pulling out of the bag from the weight of a full bag. These bags were convenient but not durable. The other type of compact syringes such as Tiny Kit that you fill from a faucet like a water balloon are useless as an enema syringe. Nothing beats the open top fountain syringe for convenience and durability.

Nothing beats the open top fountain syringe for convenience and durability.

Oh so true; though anything with the word "feminine" always caught my eye and something I had to have...

The folding travel syringes are no longer on the market and seem to have totally disappeared from the face of the earth! I always kept one, and it was easy to travel with this style of folding syringe. When my old one wore out (about two years ago), I went online to buy a new one, and they were nowhere to be found. I miss latex and folding syringes and wonder if there is a market for these products to the point it would be worthwhile to contact a latex fabrication company to custom-make them and try to sell them. I seriously doubt a timely return on investment, but feel it might be a good "community service" to the Zity Family.

I think this type of syringe was taken off of the market because they were typically made of latex rubber, I have heard some people have an allergy from latex rubber. Not me, but I guess for some it is a problem. It seems to me silicone rubber is replacing many things that used to be latex.

Mom had one in the bathroom cupboard. I don't know what happened to it after 3 moves. I don't remember anyone saying they'd found it. Though doubt there would have been any reason to mention it.

Until a couple of days ago I had never seen this particular thread. I know ZB tends to be enema centric so it is natural that this thread and many others focus on and associate the fountain syringe with enemas; in my view this is a biased view of the fountain syringe usage. My grandmother is in her early 80s so she grew up during the "golden years" . A while back I had a chance to discuss what she recalled seeing in the bathroom during the 50s and early 60s. She said it was very uncommon to see an enema nozzle on a syringe in someone's bathroom. Seeing a syringe with a vaginal nozzle for douching was far more common. Her view is that back then most women routinely douched after "marital relations" a common euphemism for intercourse back in the day. Since married women were more likely to have intercourse a couple of times a week and douche; enemas would be less frequent. So one would expect to see douche nozzles attached to syringes much more frequently than enema nozzles. Also most women probably could not put their douche equipment away because it was used so frequently. Contributing to the frequency of seeing douche equipment in someone's bathroom was the use of the diaphragm and spermicide for birth control. Back in the day essentially every wife using a diaphragm was taught to douche in the morning when she removed it. My grandmother also said that most women of that era douched a couple of times at the end of their menstrual periods.

So the obvious reason that a folding syringe was called a feminine syringe is because women bought most of them for feminine hygiene i.e. douching. Another point is that the advertising for folding syringes during the golden age seldom if ever emphasized the multiuse aspect that included enemas. In fact, one of the popular widely used a folding syringes of the era had to turn Douche Syringe on the box. The other tell was that they instructions that came with it were for douching and not taking an enema. In fact as I recall the folding syringe my mother helped me buy when I started menstruating included a several page instruction on how to prepare the mixture and douche.

There are many reasons why the classical folding douche syringe became less common over time. Data I have seen shows the decreasing popularity of the diaphragm contributed significantly to the decline of the folding syringe. As I've said elsewhere the classical folding syringe is still available in the former communist bloc countries. The one I curently use came from the former eastern block.

Dita

Elderly mail,,

Folding syringes are called "feminine" syringes to cause a desire to have one, to make you ask this question and then buy one to see for your self if it has girliness built in. Maybe you have been taught to play house and this might be a little toy box. They fold up smartly and present themselves neatly. (no Ghastly Bag and Hose) for the lady. Our house has had them, just to be proper.

I had one as a teenager. I bought it with my paper rout money. It was small and easy to hide. If I recall correct it was called a 'feminine syringe' because it came with only a douche nozzle, not like a combination syringe that had douche and enema nozzles.

This style of syringe was, for many years, referred to as a "folding syringe" and came with both douche and enema nozzles. They were well made, and I recall that in the mid-50s, my grandmother had one of these natural amber latex syringes hanging in her bathroom. In our home in later years, when the old traditional red rubber bag wore out, my mother bought an identical syringe, except this one had white nozzles instead of black. These syringes were incredibly well made and lasted for years. However, over time they were cheapened and became more and more shoddy and were advertised as feminine syringes and came with only a douche nozzle and a metal eyelet where heavily reinforced rubber used to be. Nowadays, as far as I can tell, they have totally disappeared. As an aside, it really does not bother me all that much since now, when I travel, I need a syringe with more capacity than the 2-quart folding syringe and pack my 4-quart red rubber latex Klystra bag and let the TSA people enjoy their day. More often than not, when I travel and arrive at my destination, I find a card in my luggage telling me the TSA examined it.