Though it was dawn in Cincinnati, Suk was undimmed. The Tampax team know her intimately. Like all big brands, they run a rolling programme of focus groups, talking to hundreds of women every month. They are led, always and exclusively, they like to say, by her needs and desires. For Tampax, like any longstanding empire, has inherent weaknesses. Over the past few years, according to market researchers Euromonitor, the global consumption of tampons has been in steady decline — from a high of 17bn boxes in , down to Back in the meeting room, Suk rattled off five contributing factors to this drop-off in a way that suggested this list was a feature of many panicky Cincinnati brainstorms:.
In other words, women having misconceptions about tampons. Never mind about 3, 4 and 5 for the moment. In No 1, Tampax is facing perhaps its greatest existential threat — the growing number of women choosing not to have periods at all. Last year, the faculty of sexual and reproductive healthcare of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists issued an updated guideline , stating that there was no health benefit to taking a week-long break from the pill to have a sort of faux-period.
In threat No 2 — abundance of options — Tampax is reckoning with the possible fate of any long-time ruler: the rising howl of revolution, a potential coup. Over the past few years, an array of new tampon brands and period products have appeared on the market. Periods, seen afresh, present a seductive retail opportunity: a naturally occurring regular event that requires a monthly purchase and continues for approximately 40 years. None of the above, Alya, none of the above.
But thank you for trying. For the average year-old, fresh to the questionable joy of periods and yet to have sex, there is a certain caution around inserting an object into your vagina. Some never use tampons at all, particularly in countries where they are considered taboo. This includes much of Asia and many religious societies. Like many, I started with pads, which in the early 90s were a very different class of item to the winged, body-contoured products of today.
I recall waddling to assembly convinced that the squeak of the quasi-nappy I had stuffed in my pants was audible to the entire school. At some point, my older sister suggested there might be a better way. And so it begins: a marriage-length relationship with a rolled wad of cotton and rayon that you put inside yourself, with a string attached so you can yank it out again. The tampon, a late chapter in the story of menstruation, is a significant upgrade after centuries of women making do with homemade efforts — old rags, sheepskin, cheesecloth sacks stuffed with cotton, pieces of fabric pinned into pants.
Bespoke period products came into existence shortly after the first world war, when nurses realised that the cellulose-based bandages they were using to dress wounds were better than cotton at absorbing blood. Kotex introduced the first mass-market sanitary pad in ; it had to be held in place by a belt. Ten years later, Earle Haas, a Colorado-based doctor, invented and patented the first cardboard applicator tampon.
For those unfamiliar with the form, an applicator is the telescopic-tube mechanism that inserts the tampon into the vagina. Hundreds of people do! Despite these improvements, viewed internally as epoch-defining gamechangers, a century of Tampax is more a story of shifting marketing tropes than major product innovation, the same humble tampon packaged up in a cornucopia of ways: Tampax Radiant, Tampax Pure, Tampax Pearl, Tampax Compak, Tampax Pearl Compak.
There are the different absorbencies, strictly regulated and coded by colour: Lite purple , Regular yellow , Super green , Super Plus orange — colours so familiar to anyone who uses them that you reach for a box without thinking, a commercial allegiance at work that is likely inherited.
Many women I spoke to use the same product as their mother or sister, a particular brand passing through families like an antique clock. Like any decades-old company, Tampax has had to change the story it tells about itself to suit the era. As a narrative, it seems increasingly at odds with the times. In a recent Saturday Night Live sketch , Phoebe Waller Bridge riffed on all the possible items — a copy of Mein Kampf, a neatly folded Confederate flag, a dog shit — within which you could more acceptably conceal a tampon and its associated deep shame.
I n the annals of menstruation, was a very big year. Early on, two viral events took place: a woman called Kiran Gandhi free-bled as she ran the London Marathon, and Instagram had to apologise after briefly removing a photo , posted by the poet Rupi Kaur, of a sleeping girl bleeding through tracksuit bottoms.
Mounting political energy consolidated into various campaigning groups: in , Gabby Edlin founded Bloody Good Period to help refugee women access period products, and in early , the Red Box Project launched its campaign for free period products in schools. It won: as of 20 January this year, the government will provide menstrual products to all schools and colleges across the country. Protests against sales taxes on period products spread rapidly — Australia and Germany, among others, have either reduced or eliminated the tax.
Quality and safety is at the heart of everything we do, so all of our products are thoroughly evaluated before they get on the shelves and into your vagina. For us, safety includes everything from where our ingredients come from to how we package the product, and all the steps in between. Call us perfectionists, but ensuring safety starts with a four-step, science-based process for ingredient assessment that builds on and exceeds government requirements.
We look at safe limits, smart uses, and evolving safety information to ensure our products are the highest quality. To know more about our safety process, visit this article. At Tampax, we believe your vagina deserves the best. We relentlessly pursue the best ingredients that can be used safely from both science and nature, and we continuously assess every finished product to ensure safety. For example, rayon is a synthetic material derived from purified wood pulp and is processed into an absorbent cellulose fiber.
Its unique fiber shape trilobal rayon is specifically designed for tampons. It absorbs fluid quickly and expands to help stop leaks. Natural cotton is an ideal absorbant fiber that provides the period protection we all need.
Some tampons use a combination of natural cotton and rayon fibers that help provide the ideal absorbency level for your flow. Our products are designed to give you the comfort and protection you want with only the ingredients you need. Our ingredients are carefully selected to give you protection and comfort you can feel good about. Learn more about why we selected them. Major Ingredients in Tampax Pearl: Our purified cotton is a plant-based ingredient purified for usage.
Rayon is a material derived from purified wood pulp and is processed into an absorbent cellulose fiber. Our purification process ensures Tampax tampons are made without elemental chlorine bleaching and do not add any perfumes to the tampon. Rates of reported TSS cases associated with tampons have declined significantly over the years. One reason is that the FDA evaluates whether a tampon enhances the growth of the bacteria that causes TSS before the product can be legally marketed.
Only tampons that have been cleared by the FDA can be legally marketed in the U. In addition, more informative tampon labeling, as well as educational efforts by the FDA and manufacturers, may have contributed to the reduction in TSS cases. For more information on TSS, see the tampon safety tips, below.
You may want to talk with your health care provider about whether tampons are right for you. If you use tampons, consider the following:. Tampon Safety Tips You may want to talk with your health care provider about whether tampons are right for you.
If you use tampons, consider the following: Follow all labeled directions. Even if you have used tampons before, read the instructions in the package. Wash your hands before and after using a tampon. This will help reduce the spread of bacteria.
Only use tampons when you have your period.
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