The Gross Factor:

Why American Women Won't Try Reusable Menstrual Pads

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By Almond Li

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It was the summer between 6th and 7th grade when Jaime Olinger first had her period. The then 11-year-old had no clue what to expect or how to handle her menstruation. Olinger’s mother had never talked to her about it.

Unclear of what to do with the blood and discomfort, Olinger took her mother’s menstrual pads without a single question.

“I never asked about pads and she never asked what I needed,” Olinger remembered, describing learning menstruation from her friends but not her own mother.

She said she briefly understood what menstruation meant but never got a clear concept or knowledge. The avoidance of talking about menstruation between Olinger and her mother shied her away from asking questions or even just mentioning about the topic.

“I got the impression growing up that you kept that private and never talk about [menstruation],” she said.

Now 36 and a stay-at-home mom, Olinger knows more about her menstrual cycle – and makes a living by selling handmade reusable menstrual pads on Etsy, an e-commerce platform.

The term reusable menstrual pad seems alienated from the major feminine sanitary product market in the United States. Multinational companies such as Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark dominate the U.S. and global markets. Menstrual pads like Always and Tampax tampons by P&G, Kotex and Poise by Kimberly-Clark, Carefree and Stayfree by Johnson & Johnson, can easily be found in supermarkets and drug stores.

A report studying global markets and opportunity of feminine hygiene products by Research and Markets estimates it will garner a revenue of over $42 billion by 2022, but the market of reusable menstrual products remains a niche.

Chris Bobel, president of Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, said it’s hard to tell whether businesses of reusable products will have a market share, but she observed a growth of the sector.

Olinger started using reusable pads for her menstrual cycle three years ago. She had experienced numerous health problems, such as abrasion and allergies, throughout the years from using disposable products. She heard of cloth pads from a friend and decided to try something new. Her symptoms were greatly alleviated after using reusable pads.

“It was life-changing and I never went back,” she said.

After doing research on what is included in disposable pads, Olinger said she was even more repulsed by them. “I didn’t like the idea of all of the chemicals and bleaches and strange fibers being in the most sensitive part of my body.”

Different Materials used in Disposable and Reusable Pads

(Hover over the layers to see what they are made of.)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said manufacturers of disposable menstrual products are not required to list all the materials used to make the pads or tampons.

A report by Women’s Voices for the Earth quoted case studies conducted on feminine products to show carcinogenic chemicals used in pesticides and fragrance are found in disposable pads and tampons.

“It’s troubling to not knowing what materials are in there when it is a product that many women wear inside their body or on their body for hours, or days at a time,” said Katie Hasson, a USC gender studies professor, who does research on menstruation.

Despite studies showing possible harmful effect of disposable products on women’s health, the acceptability of reusable menstrual products among American women is still low. Olinger said one of the reasons is women are not aware of the alternative menstrual products available in the market.

Olinger said young girls are not well-educated about this very important phase in a woman’s life and are exposed to very limited options when it comes to menstrual products.

“Here is your tampon; here is your disposable plastic sticky pad,” she said. She listed examples of alternatives women could opt for – menstrual cups, sponges, cloth pads and more.

“I so wish that I have known about these years and years earlier. And I wish that young women now would be exposed to these options,” Olinger said.

Inadequate Menstrual Education at Schools

A lot of the time menstruation is not included in sex education at schools. Comprehensive sex education suggested by Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States focuses on teaching young people about safe sex, sexual-transmitted diseases, but sheds little light on a vital stage of puberty for girls – menstruation.

Hasson said many school districts in the U.S. have strict rules about what kind of sex education is taught. She said education about menstruation provided to young girls by schools is sometimes outsourced to a third party.

She said most of the curriculum of menstruation is designed and provided directly from manufacturers of brands like Tampax or Kotex, and sometimes it comes along with free samples. Girls are taught the ways to handle their periods with a particular kind of product and thus have a narrow perspective.

Leslie Picazo, in her 30s, said she has not heard of reusable menstrual products before. “But I have heard of feminine products before.” She wasn’t sure what reusable products mean.

Even for people who know or hear of reusable menstrual products, their reactions are mostly negative. Noelle Gackle, 21, is one of those voices.

Environmental Impacts

More than 2 billion women in the world are at menstruating age, which is from 12 to 50 years old on average. There are more than 85 million in the US alone. They dump more than 12 billion pads and seven million tampons to the landfills every year.

Plastics and synthetic fibers used in making disposable pads take hundreds of years to decompose. The environment can hardly catch up with the rapid rate of the massive dumping of disposables.

Yet, a study by Rochester Institute of Technology shows that American women still prefer disposables even after they gain more understanding of the environmental pollutions and health problems brought by disposables.

The study found that the convenience and the price of getting reusable products are among women’s top concerns when making their purchase decisions. Reusable products are not widely available in regular drug stores or supermarkets. Olinger said they are usually only available online at places such as Etsy and Amazon.

Even bigger companies like Lunapads from Canada and Gladrags, which originates from Portland, Oregon, online sales are a more common form observed. Lunapads said their products are available in Targets stores since September this year. However, not many branches carry the physical product in store; customers still have to order online.

College student Hailey Konovalov said she heard of reusable pads but didn’t know they are actually available.

Accessibility is a big challenge to expand the market of reusable menstrual products. Drug stores or supermarkets are where women go to when they are in urgent need of menstrual products, instead of Etsy or Amazon.

The Rochester study also points out the high initial cost of getting reusable products discourages women from making the switch. A pack of 20 disposable pads costs $7 at Walgreens, but for the same price, a customer can only get one cloth pad at Olinger’s Etsy shop or other similar shops. The price of some other types of cloth pads that handle heavier menstrual flow is double of a pack of disposables.

“It’s deceiving,” Olinger said, “You will pay the investment upfront […] if you consider how many boxes of tampons and pads that you continuously have to buy every month, the initial investment of cloth pads is nothing.” Menstruation can cost a woman thousands of dollars over her menstrual life cycle.

How much are you paying for your period over a lifetime?

A reusable pad could last 10 years and save 10 years’ worth of money spent on tampons or disposable pads, so women are eventually saving their money in the long run, Olinger said.

Experts and sellers of reusable menstrual products said educating women about their period and alternatives they have are important to break the long-time stigma and negativity around it.