"Period poverty doesn't happen in a vacuum," said Ida Melbye, executive director of The Period Collective, a Chicago-based nonprofit that helps distribute free period products like pads and tampons to low-income communities across the city.
"Unfortunately, we are seeing that some school districts are struggling to afford the products to supply their students," said Melbye. "Even if they can access products at school, they might not be able to [at home]."
Since 2019, the average price of a pack of sanitary pads has risen 41%, with tampons increasing by 36% according to numbers from the Chicago-based research firm Circana. Bloomberg reports that hikes in retail prices for feminine products initially came around the pandemic amid increases in the costs of shipping and of raw materials like plastic resins and cotton.
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Today, Bloomberg says the industry is also trying to make up for lost revenue as more people have turned to reusable products like menstrual cups or disks that can be washed.
Nonprofits like The Period Collective and Alliance for Period Supplies say the bigger price tags are affecting the people they work with, including lower-income neighborhoods, students, people of color and people with disabilities.
"We have seen it in the prices quoted from those that we purchase menstrual products from," said Melbye. "We also see it with the clients and partners that we work with, starting really in 2020 with the pandemic."
Solutions in the works vary by state — including the distribution of free sanitary products in schools in 28 states and D.C., the elimination of sales tax on period products in 25 states and D.C., and the growing availability of free pads and tampons in public bathrooms.
"I'm not terribly optimistic about inflation and, you know, prices going down," said Joanne Samuel Goldblum, CEO and founder of the Alliance for Period Supplies. "But I'm optimistic that there are federal, that there are going to be ways for state and federally to address this issue.”
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Goldblum, who is also the co-author of "Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty," adds that much of the reform for feminine hygiene care access comes from the changing conversation about periods in general.
"Having open conversations about it and removing the stigma is what is going to move the needle on this, because people are saying out loud: 'Half the population needs this,'" said Goldblum. "Why do we have toilet paper and soap in nearly every bathroom and not period products?”