It's that time of the month and you need tampons, on tampons, on tampons. The issue at hand is, do you have 50+ dollars to spend on feminine products only to use them for a week or so every month?

As a college student, money is not readily available for me, so I dread making a trip out to the store to buy pads, tampons, body wash, and other feminine products. The one question I find myself asking time and time again once I see the total for my trip is why are these things so gosh darn expensive? I am a woman and I need these things.

Why am I financially at a disadvantage for being a woman? These are necessary products for me and millions of other women to keep ourselves clean and healthy, why do we have to pay a pretty penny for our own cleanliness? That is a basic human necessity. They should be readily available to women of all financial backgrounds at a reasonable price. We should not be punished for having a vagina.

Since a trip for all of my products is around 30 dollars or so, I have calculated that since I have been 13, I have spent $2,200 and growing. Condoms for our male peers are far less. Why is that so? Those are being handed out free by some groups and institutions, why can't that be so for feminine products as well? We make period talk taboo in schools and other institutions while we praise sexuality. That needs to change.

Along with tampons, pads, body washes, and other products being overpriced, I also find myself asking if they really work. My roommate and I are fans of Summer's Eve line of products, but, we find them to be more harmful to our womanhood than beneficial. They are meant to refresh and balance the ph of your vagina but rather lead to the opposite if used more than once. I know every vagina is different, but still, you have two different people finding issues with theirs after using these products.

I hope that in the future these products become more affordable and more effective for the sake of our vaginas.