Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu

Stain on white hotel towel

23 April, 2023
Question:

Hi, I have a mirena IUD, and randomly spot with it. I’m on vacation and have been spotting here and there, but never became a flow and always on black underwear. I mistakenly used a white hotel towel after the shower and some blood got on it. Am I officially a niddah?


Answer:

Is it possible that the stain is from any other source (e.g., a cut from shaving, the towel was already stained, your husband had a cut and used the towel as well…)? If so you may disregard the stain.

However, if the towel was clean before you used it, and you saw the stain after wiping your body, your status depends on the size and color of the stain. Stains that are clearly reddish and larger than a gris (approximately the size of a US penny or Israeli shekel) would render you niddah. Stains smaller than a gris may be disregarded. Stains that are questionable in color, or borderline in size, should be brought to a halachic authority for evaluation. Please see our article on stains for more details.

If you need to ask a question about the stain but don’t have access to a halachic authority, we recommend Tahor App, which allows women to send accurate photographs for rabbinic evaluation. Tahor is currently available for iPhones and for some models of Android phones.

Please feel free to get back to us with any further questions.

BHatzlacha!

This internet service does not preclude, override or replace the psak of any rabbinical authority. It is the responsibility of the questioner to inform us of any previous consultation or ruling. As even slight variation in circumstances may have Halachic consequences, views expressed concerning one case may not be applied to other, seemingly similar cases. All health and health-related information contained within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is intended to be general in nature and should not be used as a substitute for consulting with your health care professional. The advice is intended to offer a basis for individuals to discuss their medical condition with their health care provider but not individual advice. Although every effort is made to ensure that the material within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is accurate and timely, it is provided for the convenience of the Web site user but should not be considered official. Advice for actual medical practice should be obtained from a licensed health care professional.

For further questions or comments: 

The Nishmat Women's Health and Halacha Site is a public service of Nishmat, The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women. This project and others like it are made possible by contributions from people like you. If you have benefited from the service, and wish to enable us to help others, click here to donate.

Users of Internet filtering services: This site discusses sensitive subjects that some services filter without visual indication. A page that appears 100% complete might actually be missing critical Jewish-law or medical information. To ensure that you view the pages accurately, ask the filtering service to whitelist all pages under yoatzot.org.

Accessibility Toolbar