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She also launched a tough legal battle against Kotex Natural Balance, the brand of tampons that caused her to react so severely.
”I’d been using the same product of tampons that I always had, following the instructions on the box, as all women do. That particular day, the toxins took over my body and I nearly died. I had a 42 degree-celsius fever, my kidneys and organs began failing and I had two heart attacks. I had a one-per-cent chance of survival,” she told Harper’s Bazaar.
“Considering that the vagina is the most absorbent part of a woman’s body and is a gateway to many of our vital organs, it is crucial that consumers know the reality of what could happen to them,” Lauren wrote in InStyle.
Unfortunately, seven years after first being diagnosed with mTTS, Lauren also had to undergo amputation of her other leg.
”My world changed in an instant; I couldn’t even get up, let alone model. I lost sight of who I was and what I wanted from life. In my darkest moments, I considered suicide,” she says.
Found a greater purpose
What ultimately stopped Lauren from ending her life was the thought of her little brother. He was always the first to get home from school, and she couldn’t bear the idea of him being the one to find her. That single thought kept her holding on. Over time, she began to shift her mindset, choosing to see her struggle as a challenge instead of a defeat.
It wasn’t until later that Lauren learned the devastating truth: mTSS had been claiming the lives of women for decades. That revelation lit a fire in her. She became determined to speak up — not just for herself, but for the many others who had suffered in silence.
She found a greater purpose in being a voice for those women who lost their lives, their health, or their futures. “I should still have my legs,” Lauren says. “No woman should have to risk her life just by using a tampon.”
Over time, Lauren Wasser learned to accept and even embrace her new reality. It didn’t happen overnight—it was a slow, step-by-step process. Inspired by A$AP Rocky’s grills, she had her prosthetic legs cast in gold, seeing them not just as tools but as a form of art. “Why not wear gold jewelry all the time?” she reasoned. Today, she lives fully and unapologetically—running five miles a day, hiking with her dog, doing Pilates, playing basketball, and even starring in a global lingerie campaign. “There’s nothing I can’t do,” she says. “Plus, I don’t need any pedicures.”
“Own who you are”
Wasser knows that paving your own path is never easy, but it matters. She hopes others can see themselves in her story: just a regular woman who went through something traumatic and came out stronger.