I did a little survey this week to try to gauge about how much people know about periods. Just over a hundred people took this survey, and the results were pretty interesting.
I asked five simple questions about periods. Feel free to answer them and see what you get.
1. In general, how often does a period cycle through?
A. Once a week
B. Once a month
C. Once every two months
2. About how many tampons are needed per cycle?
A. 10
B. 15
C. 20
3. About how much does a 12 pack of tampons cost?
A. $5
B. $4
C. $2
4. About how much does someone spend on tampons in their lifetime?
A. $750
B. $1,000
C. $2,000
5. How many U.S. states tax tampons as a luxury item?
A. 10
B. 25
C. 40
A menstrual cycle lasts about a month, closer to 28 days if you're being precise, but the actual bleeding only lasts about 3-5 days.
Tampons are meant to be changed every 4-8 hours to avoid Toxic Shock Syndrome. There are times where a tampon can fill in under an hour, but for the purpose of this survey, the average amount of tampons used for a 5-day cycle was 20, but 10 or 15 would not be an out of this world option for some people because some do not have heavy flows.
Through a few Amazon.com searches and some calculations, I found that a 12 pack is actually closer to $2.
I think where most people got caught here is that I put down a 12 pack, this was an error on my part. Most tampon boxes include about 34-50 or so tampons per box, which cost around $6-8, so people don't have to go back to the store multiple times per cycle since someone would generally need about 20 tampons per period, as discussed above.
In general, periods can start anywhere between the ages of eight-15 while menopause generally starts about 45-55 years of age. That can mean anywhere between 30-47 years of periods. For this survey, we will say that the average person has their period for 40 years. That means about 480 periods and 9,600 tampons. If you stick with cheaper tampons for your entire life, you spend about $2 for 12 tampons which means you spend about $1,600 in a lifetime.
If you are like most people and buy the most popular brand of tampons (x), you end up spending $1,700 in a lifetime.
And then there's the luxury taxes. During one's period one might want some chocolate, ice cream and maybe tampons. All three are considered luxury items in most states. The map below shows which states tax tampons.
40 out of our 50 states tax feminine hygiene products as luxury items, meaning all sanitary products, including tampons, pads and panty liners, are considered unnecessary items.
Periods are expensive. Not only do people have to worry about making sure they don't bleed everywhere, they have to make sure they are replacing the clothes lost during their period. They generally purchase midol or other similar pain killers. They will generally buy panty liners to help ensure that they don't bleed over themselves.
I promise you, no one in the history of the world has ever found anything about periods to be a luxury besides knowing that they're not pregnant.
Unless you'd like to have random spots of blood in public transport, waiting rooms, libraries, your favorite couch, your great aunt's award winning quilt and other places where people might sit, feminine hygiene products are necessary.
Final Notes
* The majority of people who took this test identified as women, and as women, they have periods and know most of these questions because they have to deal with periods. Besides the last question, none of the questions really had an absolute correct answer because everyone has different periods that can be affected by many variables.
** A majority of people who have periods use tampons which is why they are the main focus of this piece.
*** I used mainly gender neutral pronouns in this piece because their are men and nonbinary people who have periods.
