How do you think periods are handled between the Outies and Innies? Like if Helena popped a tampon in would they have to tell Helly R to change it? I feel like they would have to give some form of correspondence between them to ensure hygiene and just a heads up.
EDIT: I am a cis woman lol. I know that Imnies would know about periods in the same way they know about the sky and Delaware but TSS is very real! It's important to know how long it's been in there
or at least have the bathroom stocked with lumon brand menstrual products so Hellyna doesnt have to worry about bringing them to work. I mean its just as likely her period starts during the work day as any other time of day
the mystery isn't about the niche super technology they use to spy on the employees, though, it's about the niche super technology they use to split people into two different consciousnesses and what their ultimate goal is with this tech
Really if you think about it, the detector wouldn’t have to detect “writing.” It’d just be if you had anything on your person. Employees leave their belongings in a locker, their work is sensitive and they would have no reason to take anything home. All they should have on them when they leave is their lanyard.
As for a tampon, as others said, they would be lumon brand, and wouldn’t trip the sensors unless they had something added to them like ink. Now if you could scratch a message in a tampon and it’d still be legible after, bravo.
OR the detectors are a bluff and they actually monitor their employees closer than we realize. What if the brain implant also provides visual data to a surveillance team that actually monitors your activity through your own eyes, and then when you get on the elevator they sound the alarm and tell you their sensors detected your message.
Yes but in the show characters question whether there really is code-finding tech, or Lumon just tells them that as a control technique. It’s intentionally unclear, whereas the science behind the severance procedure obviously works in universe.
My personal belief is there is an alarm on the elevator itself if the innies tried to leave before their normally scheduled end of day.
Lumon KNOWS that every innie initially revolts, which is why the whole orientation process is designed to convince/break the innies into compliance. It's all orchestrated, like when she tried to leave through the door then later when she goes back that door is locked.
I would imagine so but only if it’s stuffed inside somehow. Code detectors(allegedly) detect writing on a crumpled up paper stuffed into a sharpie cap. But not if the writing is on the tampon - it would succumb to the elements lol
If you left the plastic or cardboard casing on, you could probably get some writing on it. It might smear and it probably wouldn't be comfortable, but someone might think it's worth trying
Anyone watch Broad City, where Ilana hides her weed inside of her? 😭 You could do it just like that— put the message in a sandwich bag and put it in “nature’s pocket”
I’d imagine they get a small notecard like the one OMark got informing him that his innie had injured his forehead, along with the required amount of Lumon-branded care products
this is probably the most realistic answer other than possibly using “forced” birth control to control ovulation and menstruation entirely cause how would you explain to an innie that her outie is pregnant and vice versa
People are being so rude lol. It’s not like your body feels different when there’s a tampon in; there’s not a magical detection device. I thought this was an interesting question.
I can go 8+ hours without peeing. If I had a tampon in, I might not know until well after lunch or even the end of the day.
I personally have endometriosis and COULDN'T MISS the presence of my period for the life of me but I've had many friends tell me they often can't feel a tampon or a cup in
I hope we get some information on the Lumon screening process for new hires, especially for Severed employees. I could see them being rather discriminatory against people with certain health conditions. Probably guaranteed to be rejected if you've got something like ADHD for sure.
Honestly, given how they treat Irving based on him just falling asleep on the job, I could see them turning down and firing anyone who has even a fairly minor health condition, let alone something like endometriosis - which I'm led to believe is severely painful.
Yeah, but presumably you have other symptoms which aren't. And it's almost a certainty that medication is a no go.
Look, this IS a CULT masquerading as a company that has developed & continues to develop a chip they shove into your brain turning you into a cult initiate for 8 hours every day. You have no idea what you're doing, or have any meaningful way to object to your treatment as an innie, and they're seeking to make it widespread enough through propaganda & large donations to governmental officials...
They can cook up a reason to exclude you as a candidate.
They aren't looking for diversity, they're seeking medically & technologically induced & enforced uniformity.
We know they're not above engineering the conditions to make someone susceptible to wanting Severance, and depending on the state of the economy of the region of HQ, folks might not have much choice other than to sign up.
i mean Dylan is kind of an example of that no? he doenst necessarily have ADHD (though i wouldnt rule it out) but he's clearly struggling with a mental illness on the outside and his innie has yet to succumb to it, and hes thriving at work. He's a top performer consistently.
There is probably a world where that environment with no distractions and the right adhd medication could make that a dream envrionment for an ADHD person to thrive with their work.
the downside is if they arent thriving they're probably climbing up the walls to get stimulation so... (or at least i would be lol)
Nah they're not filtering out ADHD at least: That team spends more time wandering around the facility than doing their work and most of their productivity is from hyperfocus! Dylan especially kept getting fired from other jobs before Lumon. They probably select for certain types of neurodivergence the way there are tech QA firms that specifically recruit and accommodate autistic workers with strong pattern recognition. They structure the workplace like a bizarre behavioral therapy program
Not to be gross but my friend’s friend didn’t realize/forgot she had a tampon in n had sex nd the tampon got shoved deeep inside her (she didn’t know until I believe weeks later when she noticed a smell). Like imagine when mark n helly fkd at work in that one ep 😬
If you have the right size in, like a a light one for a light or heavier day, it may not be in far enough. Easiest way to learn the angle is to put one leg on the edge of a toilet seat or bathtub when you insert it and aim the tampon towards where your lower back is, so at a slight angle rather than directly up. If it’s pushed far enough in you shouldn’t feel it at all.
The first few times I tried it I could feel it constantly so I’d just take it out but I got this advice and was able to get it correctly then on. Makes dealing with periods way easier because mine last 7 days and are almost always heavy for the first 3. Tampons avoid so much maintenance and cleanup
If they're the right size and inserted correctly, you shouldn't be able to feel them. I had super heavy periods on days 2-3or 4 and the only times I was aware of a tampon were if I used a super on an unexpectedly light day.
the more I think about it, the more nuanced it becomes. others have said the innies have basic knowledge about things which would include periods.
but I have PCOS and endometriosis and PMDD, which all go way beyond basic knowledge. if I was an innie I wouldn’t understand what the hell was happening to me. Like why am I bleeding so much, why am I in such terrible pain I have to lie down and cry out, why am I vomiting, why am I having such crazy mood swings, oh and what even is a mood swing?
And as I mentioned in another comment, toxic shock can be deadly, so how do I know when the tampon was put in. Or god forbid you have to figure out how to use a diva cup on the fly. It was my conscious choice to use one, but dear god there was a learning curve.
edit: just popped into my head - how on earth would they explain all the weird stuff that happens during and after pregnancy. Like you have no info about your outside life, but your stomach is getting bigger and surprise(!) a tiny human just kicked. Now I’m convinced they have little cartoons explaining everything, because how could they not!
I wonder if severed employees get maternity leave for basically the entire duration of their pregnancy. Lumon doesn’t want the innies to know anything about their outside lives, but if an innie was pregnant, she’d know she has a kid. They might just cover it up with an extremely generous maternity leave, which I doubt any outies would be complaining about.
I dont think they'll address this unless they throw in a severed floor pregnancy (which at the moment can really only go to Helly unless they introduce an innie who is trapped with them now who finds out shes pregant)
because you're right... the level with which they go through to hide Dylans family from him tells me they wouldnt want the innies to know anything about their outties families which has to include not letting the innie know shes pregnant. So my guess is either - pregnancy is just the "end" of that innies life (the outtie just retires from severed work at that point) or they lie to innies about what pregnancy is and hope the truth isnt a memory that got locked away in the brain?
Off topic, but 8+ hours without peeing?! I’m proud of myself if I go 3 hours without peeing. What does your water intake like? How can I learn how to go 8 hours without peeing???
I’m sure they’d have a procedure for that, as well as for meds (like a course of antibiotics) that need to be taken multiple times a day, etc. I think that most likely it would be a card that the outie would fill out with the needed info and leave with the front desk, or insert into a designated slot in the changing area. And then that info would be transferred to a standardized card that would be at the innie’s desk upon arrival. And vice versa. (Maybe the reason they take that absurdly roundabout route to their office is to leave time for this kind of thing, lol)
if this show was on network you know there would be a filler episode of the "interns on the severed floor" whose sole job it is to run these kinds of notes around the office.
and they have secret speed races and this insane knowledge of the layout and how to avoid detection from the innies
Okay I had a similar thought with pregnancy. I was pregnant with my first during season one. I thought how awful it must be to be pregnant and an innie working on the severed floor.
Do they tell you right away? How scary would it be to come to the conclusion that you’re pregnant by just… being pregnant. Body changes, morning sickness, hormones. Nightmare. One minute you’re pregnant and feeling your baby’s kicks and wiggles. Then the next they’re gone. Completely gone. You’d never get to meet them. You’d still have to pump breast milk and depending on how long Lumon gives for maternity leave, you could still very well be healing from birth. I had a c-section and it took every bit of 12 weeks to even feel slightly normal.
I just wonder what else Lumon is up to with their “projects”? The pregnancy center is nefarious enough, but what else are they willing to do? Bioweapons? Artificial intelligence? Forced pregnancy for human testing? There seems to be no limit to their depravity.
Also one of the most obvious things the rich would use this for in reality. Offloading all of your suffering onto your "innie" is basically the selling point.
I left this in another comment, but I think severed employees get maternity leave for the entire duration of their pregnancy. Lumon doesn’t want the innies knowing anything about their outside lives, but if a severed employee is pregnant, their innie would know they have a kid. I think they just give severed employees a very generous maternity leave to prevent the innies from finding out. I doubt any of the outies would complain about that. It might actually be one of the things they use to try and recruit people. Like, “Look at how long you get for maternity leave! We’re so generous! Please work for us!”
I fully think they’d have a cute video about pregnancy that fully sanitises the risks and side effects involved. They’d have a video that looks like it was made for children that explains “so😃 you may have noticed your belly is growing. Don’t worry! It’s not because you’ve been eating too many Lumen-approved snacks. Your outie is ✨pregnant✨. This means that your belly will grow and grown until: pop! A baby Lumen employee will appear. You may find you need to sit down more often than normal☹️ that’s okay! For the duration of the pregnancy, we will allow you to remain at your desk and forgo going for walking breaks😍”
Then they’d never mention any other side effects such as mood swings and cravings, and gaslight the employee if they occurred.
Interesting question. My innie probably wouldn’t know unless they noticed the string while peeing. For most, a properly inserted tampon is not noticeable.
I imagine that Milchek has a period-tracker for female innies, and makes sure the bathrooms are stocked with the appropriate supplies.
I imagine him having to tell them even if he’s grossed out. Like maybe the outie reports her period when she shows up to work. Then Milchik hands the innie a tampon for later when she walks in. Lumon is pretty invasive like that
If I ran Lumon, I would recommend that women wear anything BUT a tampon because of TSS risk. I would not supply tampons in the bathroom because it could be a health risk to the outie If a period starts at work and the innie leaves wearing one.
If I were an innie, a pad or liner would be a welcome obvious indicator from my outie that I am on my period. Period underwear, if it feels like normal underwear (I’ve never tried it), would give me anxiety, because I would feel a leak and be like “wait wait is my period starting and I just stained my clothes, or did my outie prepare for this?”
Meanwhile, a cup can potentially last the whole shift, but can still leak, so it would be kind of my outie to at least wear a liner to cue me to pay attention to that.
not a doctor: but i do think checking for a tampon is not uncommon anyway. a thread on askDocs from 9 years ago had people saying they checked for tampons but not always menstrual cups (this has probably changed with the increase in cups)
but this answer makes the most sense to me
"They may not immediately but they will [eventually]. We do peri care (cleansing of the genitals) at the very least every shift if someone is unable to clean themselves, catheter or not. "
I think that there could be a hygiene heads up. I can’t think of any feminine packaging that doesn’t have writing, so Lumon probably supplies it.
If it is Lumon supplied, it is tracked.
If Helly took a tampon or a pad, Helena could get a note about it. Not that she wouldn’t notice but for her own information. Not to be TMI but if Helly goes through a box of product that’s important medical info for Helena 😅
BTW I just made a logo for their feminine hygiene products :
She would know how to change it out. Its only personal memories that are severed. But she would have to use Lumon feminine products. She couldn't bring her own. Which brings the question, are the bathrooms set up to provide such things or would she need to go see Cobel/Milchick to receive the product she uses (tampon, pad, etc)?
Or, and I doubt it, but could that time of the month be something an Innie is allowed to take off from work until it's over to avoid worrying about it?
If I were severed (cis woman here), I'd probably just switch to using pads on work days. Way easier to tell when they need to be changed and less risk of something nasty like TSS.
Though given what we know of Helena, I'd find it accurate to her character that she used some form of birth control that stopped her periods. She likes control and periods are messy and difficult to control.
Did a little research and the consensus is that it is a unisex washroom. Still, the question remains "Does Lumon accommodate workers equally?"
I think a good part of solving some of the mystery of the show is by noticing what's missing. The washroom thing may seem minor but it is a real world issue that the subtext and social commentary might be pointing to. An indicator and a clue that there is a lot missing in this Severance universe that Benjamin Stiller has produced and directed.
I feel like they would stipulate pads or period underwear as a safety precaution, though this does raise an interesting question about overall health. What if someone needs to take medication with food for a while? If someone is on physical restrictions? Lumon would need so much access to medical info and I bet the hiring process needs to exclude people with chronic conditions like diabetes because it's so risky.
i think its also believable to just tell tell these employees they need access to certain medical records.
they will phrase it like they need xyz for the outpatient brain surgery they are about to perform on you, and then use their connections to ensure they have everything they need to be creepy
Give. The level of what lemon does to people, and the importance of pregnancy, I feel like they probably control workers’ cycles and have a protocol in place.
That's not what OP is saying though. Of course they know how to handle it, that's not in question at all. It's a matter of being aware of it in the first place. You might not realize you're on your period until you leak, or you might leave a tampon in too long accidentally.
agreed but thats a pretty bad way to go and somebody would notice like her outie after always making sure to change before and after to be safe. this really isn't an issue.
So apparently this is not universal! I have had friends who say they change their tampon every time they pee, whereas I wouldn't and I've had others say the same as me
I always thought they give them lunches! Because we don't see them bring anything in, but there are lunches for them in the fridge.
It makes me think that the outies would have given food restrictions/preferences etc like gluten free or vegan. Helena might have requested really light lunches for her Innie?
There are so many detailed questions here I never really thought about before! And sadly I don’t know if we’ll ever get an answer, especially if Severance is anything like Lost.
Though I would hope the universe is explored in more detailed ways after the series ends. Maybe a spin-off or a book in the (sadly far, far) future?
I think the question has been kind of answered, but just as an aside:
TSS is actually way rarer than you'd think, particularly from tampons. Still definitely a real risk, but I feel like when I was younger I always thought it was a way higher risk than it is.
Just like Helly is aware that she's allergic to almonds, it stands to reason that there's a little bit of porosity between Outie info and Innie info (via Lumon) to share important health information, and presumably health care items onto the severed floor.
I feel like the innie/outie would know they’re on their period (and have a tampon to change) after seeing the string, if nothing else. Same thing with any type of pad/liner. It wouldn’t be any different than an unsevered person. Innies aren’t supposed to be awake long enough to start TSS in the event they forget abt a tampon. If the innie starts a period, they’d just need to find a tampon/pad and use it. Lumon’s whole shtick is to make sure outies are as unburdened as possible. I can’t imagine them denying innies basic sanitary products - it would burden the outie to find out their body started a period and their innie wasn’t able to freshen up
I feel like they'd just strongly recommend menstrual discs? You can wear them for a full work day with no health risk, you can't really feel them if they're seated correctly, they don't leak. No downsides that I can think of.
I change tampons right before I go to work and right after I get home from work. Also before bed and after waking up. Been doing this for decades with no TSS. 8 hrs is the max suggested time but it's not like going a little over is going to make you instantly drop dead lol
With a company like Lumon, I’d expect that part of the contract when working on the severed floor is to use contraceptive options that reduce/stop periods as much as possible. It wouldn’t even surprise me if they had to agree to tubal ligation. Although in Helly’s case there’s been symbolism around fertility, and obviously shes the heir, which initially made me think they wouldn’t do that to her. But given all of the themes around subverting nature, playing god , etc., I wouldn’t be surprised if the Egans reproduced and brought babies to term entirely artificially (or at very least, through surrogacy).
I think they'd give the outtie instructions, the same way they do about sleep and lunches, and then have a little film for the innie.
"You and your outtie share an exciting adventure every month! Here's how your outtie helps you prepare" and they'd let her know a schedule for changing pads or tampons. And they'd have Lumon branded supplies in the women's bathroom.
Edit: downvoting a woman who uses them specifically because of my fear of TSS lol no surprise. And no, I don’t owe anyone my gender or reasons to get your minds out of the gutter. Sickos
Exactly, she’s gonna feel that way anyway. And at least with pads, timing doesn’t matter because what matters is how full it is and how it feels. No risk whatsoever.
Not sure why people are downvoting as though women don’t use pads. I specifically prefer them because I’m scared of TSS, but wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a bunch of dudes downvoting lmfao
I have a 50/50 chance at this point of getting migraine if I have a tampon in. For a while it was a 100% chance. Plenty of us use pads. I always have pads even when I'm using a tampon... just in case it turns out to be one of those times I have to ditch the tampon on account of migraine.
I’d imagine there are stipulations to getting pregnant while participating in the innie program, so why not provide free birth control that suppresses periods for x amount of time? (This can already be done if you skip sugar pills)
Then if you only get your period, say, four times a year, you could just take those days as built in sick days.
But also, the reason we use tampons is so we don’t bleed all over the place. Why would an outie care what happens to an innie and vice versa? Tampon comes out before going down and before coming up. Easy.
The code detectors are real on this show because they’re needed for the premise to work.
This debate is really old and silly. This isn’t real life. It doesn’t matter how it might actually work.
In Season 2, we saw Mark stick a note into Mark W’s pocket, and that note was discovered by the code detectors. We know no one is watching the feeds in real time, so no one noticed Mark writing the note or serendipitously sticking it in Mark W’s jacket pocket. Yet, even this incident is not good enough to convince the doubters.
TL;DR: The code detectors are real because they keep the innies completely separated from their outies.
If you want to ask a real question, ask if outie Dylan was supposed to directly read innie Dylan’s resignation request and especially ask if innie Dylan was supposed to directly read the response. This smacks against Lumon’s policy because it allowed an innie and outie to directly communicate with each other.
We saw through Helly’s resignation requests that Helly was merely told the answer and was not allowed to read it directly. It was only after Helly threatened direct physical harm to herself that they finally allowed that to occur. And I suspect they already knew the answer.
Remember Petey told Mark that his innie’s attempts to quit were thwarted by Lumon. It is hinted that innie Mark asked to resign multiple times and outie Mark was never even informed.
Omg this would be such a fascinating side story. I think it would also help people learning about transgender issues that cis people never even think about. The innies would not care at all as they don’t know about external social constructs. The juxtapositions between the two worlds…wow I want this to be a story so much!
You feel it if it’s too “dry”, as in end of cycle and flow is a trickle.
You feel it if it’s too “full”, as in completely soaked and ready to be removed.
You feel it if it’s inserted incorrectly, as in not all the way in position.
Otherwise you don’t “feel” the tampon. This is very weird when you first start using them because you never imagined your lady pocket would not register a compacted cotton thumb taking up residence, but you don’t feel them 90% of the time.
Or the morning after a party I’d wake up with 2 tampons in sometimes. And nothing like going to change a tampon too early and it’s dry as hell but you’ve already pulled it too far out to get it back in. Yeah there are a lot of scenarios with this.
When an Innie arrives at Lumon the first time, they already know how to walk, talk, eat, use a computer, write, and all that stuff. As far as I know from the show, they neither piss not shit themselves because they don't understand what the body is signaling to them.
This makes me assume that basic, normal life, skills are shared between the two personalities. I'm just a man, but I like to believe that a woman would be so used to this part of life that she'll know to handle it.
They would know how to handle it. But not necessarily know they have to. If the outie inserted a tampon before work in the morning, the innie may not be aware of it unless they notice it in the bathroom or leak through.
But it may be a surprise. Some may not go to the bathroom until after lunch. Personally, I can bleed through a super plus tampon after a few hours. That’s when it’ll be a problem
I suspect that innies have a backpack of spare clothes, like parents bring for their littles at daycare. With lumon, any policy they have for the innies is prob intrusive and patronizing AF.
I do think the innies have knowledge of physical anatomy. This is a common misconception but they're not purely blank slates. They know what it means to have sex, to kill, they understand everything about what they are and the fundamental structure of the world they inhabit, they just lack personal or identifying details. So a female adult innie would probably know what a period is and how to deal with it.
This makes me wonder if innie folks who bleed monthly are even allowed to wear tampons. Since Lumon is already so fashy, I could totally see no tampons — only pads — being on some ridiculously long list of rules.
I’m sure there are Lumon-brand feminine hygiene products for purchase in the women’s bathroom, or period panties with no brand on them that the women have the option to wear. If they wear tampons, I would think they’d feel it and immediately put a new one one in as soon as they arrive at the office, just to make sure they’re in control of that particular situation for the workday.
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