Tampons

When I was on my period one day , I told my mother that there was no more pads , and she told me to use tampons. I tried it and felt pain and it was kind of hard to take out cause I felt uncomfortable. Eventually I took it out and I wondered. If I cant take a tampon at this age (16) how am I going to take sex when I get older? Cause tampons hurt me and I don't know if I could handle that kind of activity. How do I place a tampon correctly ?