By Marni Sommer, Columbia University
Tampons have grow to be the newest family product to fall foul of supply chain points.
Experiences of a scarcity of the menstrual product, utilized by hundreds of thousands of girls within the U.S., have mixed with basic inflationary strain on the value of products to create price and entry limitations.
The Dialog requested Marni Sommer, an expert on public health and menstruation at Columbia College, what should be blamed for the present scarcity and the way it has affected the plight of low-income girls and adolescent women who might already face limitations to enough, high-quality menstrual merchandise.
What’s behind the tampon scarcity?
There are a few issues at play right here. First off, it seems tampons are one other casualty of the supply chain problems which have been round for the reason that starting of the pandemic. However this has been compounded by a specific subject with the rising price of raw materials utilized in tampons: cotton, rayon and plastic.
On prime of this, there was the impact of the recent lockdown in China on manufacturing worldwide, in addition to general staffing issues at producers within the U.S.
In the meantime, the impression of inflation has hit menstrual merchandise normally, and tampons specifically. Inflation trackers say the value of tampons has surged nearly 10% during the last 12 months.
Does the scarcity impression some girls greater than others?
It’s a good query. Sadly, nobody has studied how the present scarcity is affecting totally different girls – it’s simply too quickly. However we’re listening to from organizations that assist girls who historically have problem accessing menstrual merchandise, similar to these experiencing homelessness and lower-income girls, that it’s immediately affecting them.
These organizations are also seeing ashortfall in donations of tampons, which makes it more durable to distribute these merchandise to weak teams.
The scarcity might have an effect on girls who use tampons extra so than different menstrual merchandise, similar to pads or menstrual cups. And ladies who expertise heavier bleeding will likely be hit more durable by the rising prices as they could want extra tampons for every menstrual cycle.
Clearly, essentially the most affected will likely be girls who merely can’t afford the leap in costs. The scarcity, alongside of the impression of inflation, will doubtless exacerbate what known as “period poverty.”
What’s interval poverty and who does it have an effect on?
Interval poverty is the lack to entry enough, high quality menstrual merchandise. And even earlier than the latest worth will increase, many ladies within the U.S. had been affected by interval poverty. Sadly, we don’t have rigorous knowledge on the extent or scale of interval poverty throughout the nation.
However a study I conducted in 2021 with colleagues on the CUNY Faculty of Public Well being discovered that the pandemic exacerbated the issue of interval poverty. Lack of revenue because of the financial fallout of the pandemic was a strong predictor of menstrual product insecurity, particularly for ladies already on low incomes or with decrease formal training. Respondents to our survey indicated elevated challenges when it got here to accessing menstrual merchandise.
What’s the impression of interval poverty on girls’s lives?
There isn’t lots of knowledge on interval poverty on this nation – now we have solely actually began speaking about it in recent times. It isn’t a topic that, historically, girls have felt comfortable talking about.
Alongside the monetary burden, there’s importantly the continuing stigma and stress for women who’re unable to entry or afford menstrual merchandise. Menstrual product insecurity can have an effect on a lady’s confidence to go about her every day life and create anxiousness.
One other factor we present in our examine how the latest pandemic affected entry to menstrual merchandise was that ladies described utilizing varied coping mechanisms when not capable of afford or entry them. This included, for instance, utilizing diapers, socks and fabric instead of menstrual merchandise similar to pads and tampons. That is occurring now in America, however many ladies are embarrassed to speak about it.
Interval poverty and the tampon scarcity may additionally imply that ladies are having to make use of inferior merchandise. Sure, you would possibly be capable to get cheaper tampons on the greenback retailer, however they may not work as nicely, and utilizing lower-quality merchandise would possibly imply a lady has to purchase much more of them.
This high quality subject got here up in a study I used to be concerned with populations experiencing homelessness. Respondents complained that the merchandise out there in shelters or at service suppliers, oftentimes the outcomes of donations, weren’t of a top quality. Others have described related product high quality challenges for many who are incarcerated.
What are the options for ladies amid the tampon scarcity?
There are a selection of different merchandise in the marketplace – certainly, one factor I came upon in a examine of adolescent women and menstruation was how overwhelmed they felt by the various choices out there to them.
Our understanding is that many extra girls use pads than tampons. Then you’ve got menstrual cups, which have been round for many years however have seen a resurgence in recent times. They’re environmentally pleasant, however not each lady is comfy with the thought of inserting cups, and the upfront prices will be increased.
Period underwear made from absorbent supplies is a more recent product that some girls use. However for ladies who’re used to tampons however are discovering them troublesome to entry, pads would be the best substitute.
Marni Sommer, Affiliate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University
This text is republished from The Conversation beneath a Inventive Commons license. Learn the original article.
