I constantly find myself in need of a tampon, and I find that I don't have one nor the funds to purchase what I need. This got me thinking, why are tampons and pads a luxury item while condoms are passed out for free? I'm still young, but I can't imagine the things I could have bought with the money I have spent on tampons within the last 5 years while going through my menstrual cycle. So I started doing some research on how much people with periods can expect to spend throughout their lifetime. Why should we have to pay so much money on something we can't control?

     So let's walk through this cost. The Association of Reproductive Health estimates that a woman will have an average of 450 periods during her lifetime, that being over 37.5 years. Now, our periods can last between 2-7 days, changing our tampon every 2-4 hours. That's an average of 23 tampons per cycle. For me, I have a heavier flow that lasts usually 6 days so I'm using about 30 tampons per cycle like many people do as well. With that, a person goes through 10,350-14,000 tampons during their life.

     Using a lifetime of the cheapest, most off-brand tampon you can find, you'll find that you spent about $1,500. For me, my box of 30 tampons is about $10. If I continue buying these for the rest of my life, I would have spent around $13,500 just on tampons. This cost doesn't include what I pay for pain meds, heating pads, and sick days I take off of work because of cramps. 

     With this information, do we really believe that every person with a menstrual cycle can afford this? Tampons ARE a necessity. If these items were free, it would help women all over our country every day.