The Economics Of Menstruation: By The Numbers

Menstruation is having a moment—due mostly to a hard-fought series of efforts by women to not only de-stigmatize periods, but also their attendant products. Perhaps more importantly, they’re pushing governments stop taxing them, and to understand the need for tampons and pads are necessary items that, like toilet paper, should be widely available and freely provided in school bathrooms, jails, and shelters.

Menstruation may be as old as our existence, but menstrual equality is not. Periods have long been a source of secret shame, and beside that shame runs a parallel history of poorly designed products that have taken decades to evolve toward the lifestyles of the women using them. And still today, in many countries, having no access to sanitary protection keeps girls out of schools.

This year, YouTube star Ingrid Nilsen got the opportunity to interview Barack Obama She used the time to ask him about why tampons and pads—something crucial to women managing their health in their everyday lives— are considered a luxury good, and why 40 states still tax them.

“I have to tell you, I have no idea why states would tax these as luxury items,” Obama answered. “I suspect it’s because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed.”

The latest issue of Newsweek devotes its cover story to a deep history of menstrual mayhem, declaring that the fight to end period shaming has finally gone mainstream. This, combined with recent looks at the economics of menstruation and the legal fights in a slew of states to make tampons tax-free and more widely available all point to a seismic shift in our ability to finally start talking, and doing something, about periods.

Here’s the issue by the numbers.

On average, American girls start their periods between age 12 and 13, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. They have a period that hits once a month and runs for about seven days, until they hit menopause (which often arrives after the age of 50). This amounts to some 450 ovulations in a lifetime, more than our prehistoric sisters, who might have ovulated about 160 times a lifetime.

The formula is simple: 3-6 tampons/day x 7 days/month x 12 months/year x 40 years. Estimating the cost of tampons at $5 to $7 a box, the price for sanitary products averages to some $1800 over a lifetime according to one calculation. That’s not including pads, too, which some women alternate or use in conjunction with tampons, and could tack on another $500. Of course, this is all highly variable depending on period flow and the length of a period, but it offers a general idea.

Period care is a big market according to Euromonitor, and its products are taxed in most states. Meanwhile, Newsweek notes, “adult diapers, Viagra, Rogaine and potato chips are not.”

Even FEMA—the Federal Emergency Management Agency—resisted using homelessness funds to cover sanitary protection, though they covered underwear. That will change this year thanks to the efforts of New York Representative Grace Meng, who convinced the Homeland Security secretary to change the policy to include them.

In most states, purchasing pads and tampons means paying tax on these items, which are classified as a “luxury,” ironic given that women can’t just ignore their body, or simply wish away their periods—at least, not without spending more money to do so by taking the pill or using some other period-reducing aid or device. Rep. Meng and other state politicians are at the forefront to change that policy in New York, where the State Assembly has passed a bill to eliminate the tax on tampons and pads. The language of the deal is being sorted out before going to Governor Cuomo to sign.

Prior to this latest surge of advocacy, five women filed a class action lawsuit against the state to end the tampon tax, saying classifying tampons and pads as luxuries violated the state’s equal protection clause. They say only items used by women, like lip balm and tampons are taxed as general merchandise, while Rogaine is not. They also argue that lower-income women are most burdened by the tax, as you can’t buy tampons or pads with food stamps. Homeless women must rely entirely on donations to access sanitary care.

Currently, only Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have eliminated the taxes from sanitary protection. Some 12 states have some sort of tampon tax legislation in the works to eliminate the tax, based on the notion that they are finally coming around to see that taxing a necessity for women amounts to gender discrimination. Canada removed the sales tax on tampons this past summer.

American women are relatively lucky compared to some countries overseas, where globally, some 500 million girls and women lack the proper scenario for period management, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organization. In rural India, one in five girls is likely to drop out of school as a result of the shame and stigma periods cause in places where there is no access to sanitary protection or a proper means of disposal, further deepening the stigma.

An international survey by a period tracker app called Clue discovered that in most countries, euphemisms for periods are used far more often than the word period or menstruation, illustrating how difficult it is to even discuss something so fraught with shame. But advocates for untaxing tampons say changing this attitude is critical to the shift in thinking and perception.

Drives to donate free tampons and pads to those in need are currently thriving, while period subscription boxes and delivery services are also changing the conversation. After the success of HelloFlo’s commercial celebrating menstruation with a period party, company founder Naama Bloom said she pivoted her company into a more informational women’s health company, now putting resources into helping answer questions that go beyond periods. Rather, it encompasses everything women don’t discuss about their health, she told Fast Company. “People don’t talk openly about [women’s health], but I had a different approach—and it resonated.”

All of this means that something women have long dreaded is now something they can, at least a little, discuss—and hopefully buy or get their hands on for free—without embarrassment.

The Economics Of Menstruation: By The Numbers