Ordinarily, blood on a diaphragm is treated like blood on an internal bedikah, and you would be considered niddah. For this reason, we recommend that women not look at their diaphragms when washing them (or wash them in the dark).

However, it is quite possible that the diaphragm caused some irritation which led to bleeding on the diaphragm and on the toilet tissue.  If you can establish that the blood was from an irritation, then it would be considered dam makkah (blood from a wound) and not dam niddah, and you would not be in niddah. To establish that, please see a doctor or bodeket taharah (a female nurse trained to check for women’s irritations for these purposes) as soon as possible. In Israel, there are a number of bodkot taharah. Procedures vary in other countries. In some communities, a rav may refer you to a specific doctor. Otherwise, you can ask your physician to look and see if she sees any lesion on the vagina or cervix that could bleed, even if it is medically normal. Please see our page here, and get back to us with any further questions. Barring this medical information, you would be considered niddah, as above.

When wiping with toilet paper, you may choose not to look if there is any discharge, thus avoiding any halachic questions. If you prefer to look, then try to wait 15 seconds between urinating and wiping, since discharge found immediately after urinating is treated strictly according to Ashkenazi rulings and certain Sephardi authorities. However, even if only a few seconds elapsed, that would be considered a sufficient amount of time. If there is no pause between urinating and wiping, a stain of a niddah color on toilet paper generally renders a woman niddah. You can learn more in our articles on stains an toilet paper.

This response was updated on 7 August, 2025.