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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie.

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Speaker 2: And Samantha and welcome to Steff.

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Speaker 1: We never told your prediction of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: And welcome to another Monday Mini where I talk about

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Speaker 2: well my social media corner. Yeah no, so on my

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Speaker 2: usual daily viewing of TikTok, don't start with me. A

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Speaker 2: video popped up on my for You page FYP, and

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Speaker 2: in it, the creator compares an old manufactured tampon so

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Speaker 2: like she probably bought it ten years ago, not really sure,

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Speaker 2: versus a tampon produced today so recently manufactured, and claimed

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Speaker 2: that the sizes have shrunk. So here's some context of

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Speaker 2: that video from Cafe mom dot com. Quote. In her video,

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Speaker 2: Melissa Simonson showed a tampax chart showing that minstrel flows

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Speaker 2: aligned with which absorbency level. I'm calling you out, Tampacs.

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Speaker 2: She said, these sizes that you normalize so that we

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Speaker 2: all as women know about which ones we use for

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Speaker 2: about which period of time during our periods. These are

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Speaker 2: not accurate anymore because you shrunk them. The video has

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Speaker 2: since attracted more than two point three million views and

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Speaker 2: over two hundred and ninety three thousand likes, not to mention,

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Speaker 2: thousands of women in the comments confirmed they too noticed

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Speaker 2: a stark difference. So she kind of brings out the

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Speaker 2: two different tampons and puts it in her hands and

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Speaker 2: shows the differences and sizes, and she goes with it

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Speaker 2: that they different the flows, like you know, it's the

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Speaker 2: junior or the small, medium, large, and then Super I

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Speaker 2: had to be the super just go ahead and give

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Speaker 2: this heads up. I do not have a period anymore.

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Speaker 2: Thank god. I'm very happy i'd gotten IUD. I first

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Speaker 2: got them, I don't want to say like twenty thirteen,

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Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, maybe twenty fifteen. I know it was before the

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Speaker 2: Trump administration for sure, and since then my period has stopped.

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Speaker 2: And I've been very very grateful to this. In my world,

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Speaker 2: my periods were awful, heavy, flowing, very painful, all these things.

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Speaker 2: So after the first initial year of having an IUD,

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Speaker 2: because I know there's a whole debate, there's so many

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Speaker 2: things that we could talk about ID as in fact

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Speaker 2: Caroline christ and already have. But with that, for me,

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Speaker 2: in my experience, the first year was really rough and

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Speaker 2: trying to regulate. After that, it's been lovely and beautiful

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Speaker 2: and I love everything about it. Thank you IUD. So

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Speaker 2: with that said, I haven't had a period in a

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Speaker 2: long time, so I don't know myself. I have not

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Speaker 2: had to buy a tampon. I do keep small like

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Speaker 2: pandyliners around just in case someone needs them. I don't know,

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Speaker 2: it's not bad to have. But so I'm gonna put

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Speaker 2: my little disclaimer here so I cannot attest to this myself.

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Speaker 2: This is all coming from different sources. So this attention

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Speaker 2: has brought a lot of period has to comment on

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Speaker 2: this issue. Again, many people are saying they feel the

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Speaker 2: same way. And two the point that many women thought

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Speaker 2: they were having problems, like they were having such heavy

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Speaker 2: flows and changing out their tampons so frequently or paths

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Speaker 2: that they were freaking out, like, oh my god, what

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Speaker 2: was wrong with me? Something is happening with my body?

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Speaker 2: And here are some of those comments from the sun

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Speaker 2: It says one of them said, I knew I wasn't crazy.

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Speaker 2: I was wondering while I was going through them so

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Speaker 2: much quicker. Another said, so it's not just me, dude.

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Speaker 2: I thought my flow was getting worse because my tampons

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Speaker 2: soaked through way faster. Now another one, I wondered why

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Speaker 2: I went from using super plus tampons to needing to

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Speaker 2: use Ultra on my heavier days. Actually, I was like,

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Speaker 2: why do I need super like every single day except

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Speaker 2: the days I need super Plus or Ultra? Now we know,

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Speaker 2: Simonson responded, regular is trash made for no one. I

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Speaker 2: felt that way, and another user said, oh my god,

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Speaker 2: this makes so much sense. I was like, how do

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Speaker 2: I go through two boxes now in one cycle? It

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Speaker 2: used to be one and one fourth boxes? And Simonson

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Speaker 2: commented I had the same question. Truly thought my body

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Speaker 2: was changing over time, and another woeman was like, I

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Speaker 2: thought it was me as well. So a lot of

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Speaker 2: these things have been concerning many women, and we've already

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Speaker 2: kind of had this conversation about how much they cost.

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Speaker 2: We talked about the pink tax, and it's still just

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Speaker 2: as bad. Only a few states and areas offer free tampons.

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Speaker 2: Twenty states, according to one site, still tax these products

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Speaker 2: as well. Pink tax. Tampax, who was the main focus

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Speaker 2: of this TikTok, even though other commenters were like, it's

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Speaker 2: not just Tampax, y'all. My other tampons brands are the

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Speaker 2: same way, but they they were the focus for Simonson's video,

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Speaker 2: and they responded and said that they have not shrunk,

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Speaker 2: although the amount available per box has definitely gone down,

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Speaker 2: like literally at one point it was like thirty six

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Speaker 2: in the box and now the thirty two. Why why

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Speaker 2: for more money? We know that and that the actual

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Speaker 2: I guess capacity to hold is regulated by the FDA.

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Speaker 2: So a spokesperson from tamp box responded to buzfeed after

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Speaker 2: the initial backlash, saying, no, we have not changed the

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Speaker 2: size for always in tampacts. Our pads are available in

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Speaker 2: multiple absorbencies designed to fit different knees, body types, and flows.

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Speaker 2: They went on to say tampons are regulated by the

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Speaker 2: US Food and Drug Administration FDA and adhere to industry

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Speaker 2: observancy or size ranges as listed on the side of

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Speaker 2: each package. The FDA absorbency ranges have not changed since

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Speaker 2: its introduction more than thirty years ago. So they've been

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Speaker 2: saying that repeatedly to different comments because I think people

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Speaker 2: magazine got onto them as well and they were like, no, no, no,

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Speaker 2: this is not true. Of course, then the question lies,

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Speaker 2: why are women using more? Have they truly not changed

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Speaker 2: or have they stayed within the boundaries of the FDA,

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Speaker 2: which has like a listing that are arranged by doing

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Speaker 2: the least possible amount. That's my question. You know how

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Speaker 2: they kind of get away with wording and I'm wondering

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Speaker 2: maybe this is it, so People Magazine rights. According to

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Speaker 2: a Federal Register, the official journal of the Federal Government,

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Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty nine, the FDA published a rule amending

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Speaker 2: tampon labeling regulations, which standardize the absorbency terms and sizes.

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Speaker 2: They are junior which is less than six grams of fluid,

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Speaker 2: Regular six to nine grams of fluid, Super nine to

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Speaker 2: twelve grams of fluid, and super plus twelve to fifteen grams,

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Speaker 2: and an ultra tampon absorbency size is fifteen to nineteen

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Speaker 2: grams of fluid, and that was added in two thousand

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Speaker 2: and The junior was labeled as light in two thousand

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Speaker 2: and four. I don't know why that happened, So my question,

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Speaker 2: my thought is maybe they're just keeping it instead of

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Speaker 2: like the larger range, they're just keeping it as a

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Speaker 2: minimal and saying they're still guidelines because they didn't say

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Speaker 2: they didn't change it right.

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Speaker 1: Right well, being guess lit and so many of those

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Speaker 1: like terms. I've never really thought about it before, but

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Speaker 1: the kind of strange, yeah, I feel like a lot

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Speaker 1: of food companies get away with using terms terms that

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Speaker 1: have a legal meaning, but they're not necessarily using it

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Speaker 1: in the legal sense, right, So yeah, I wonder if

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Speaker 1: there's something like that going on here.

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Speaker 2: Right. Also, there's this conversation about how they're testing these products,

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Speaker 2: so BuzzFeed actually talks about it, about the fact that

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Speaker 2: they don't actually use blood. They use like a saline solution,

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Speaker 2: which is not as thick as blood. So you've got

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Speaker 2: to wonder what is being absorbed in what isn't. But

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Speaker 2: before we jump into that, just as a reminder, this

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Speaker 2: leads to the still disturbing facts of period poverty, which

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Speaker 2: is still very prevalent all over the world. And just

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Speaker 2: for a refresher, an update of where we stand period

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Speaker 2: poverty as explained by the Unwoman dot org and this

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Speaker 2: was from twenty twenty four. Period poverty refers to the

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Speaker 2: inability to afford and access menstrual products, sanitation and hygiene facilities,

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Speaker 2: and education and awareness to manage menstrl health. Simply put,

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Speaker 2: period poverty costs women and girls too much, and it

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Speaker 2: doesn't have to be this way. I feel like this

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Speaker 2: is just this has been a conversation for the last

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Speaker 2: thirty years and we're still not hardly getting anywhere. Well,

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Speaker 2: there's some places that are like, yes, we've got it,

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Speaker 2: some workplaces that are like, yeah, we understand, we're here

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Speaker 2: for you. But the fact that it's still so prevalent

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Speaker 2: that people cannot afford, afford this or get access to

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Speaker 2: this as a problem. And they go on to explain

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Speaker 2: the causes, which quote stigma, the high cost of mintral products,

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Speaker 2: and lack of water and sanitation facilities drive a period

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Speaker 2: poverty around the world. Minstrual products are prohibitively expensive for

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Speaker 2: millions of people worldwide. Ginger blind policies and tax laws,

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Speaker 2: for example, the pink tax on feminine products, are in

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Speaker 2: part to blame, but such policy decisions go together with

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Speaker 2: a stigma and taboo attached to minstruation. For example, in

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Speaker 2: many states within the United States, by Agra for erectile

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Speaker 2: dysfunction is classified as a tax exempt health product, while

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Speaker 2: sanitary products are claified as luxury goods and texts at

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Speaker 2: the highest rate, which is I really want to throw

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Speaker 2: the computer every time I read something like that. Why

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Speaker 2: is viagrass so much more important? I'm gonna throw this computer. Additionally,

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Speaker 2: more than one point five billion people still lack basic

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Speaker 2: sanitation services such as private toilets, which is a huge deal.

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Speaker 2: Not having access to safely managed toilets keeps many girls

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Speaker 2: away from school and women away from work during their period.

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Speaker 2: At least one in ten women and girls in rural

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Speaker 2: areas across twelve countries did not have a private place

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Speaker 2: to wash and change during their last period. That is

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Speaker 2: so disturbing. Yeah, and as ongoing crises all over the

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Speaker 2: world has caused a bigger deficit in period poverty, it's

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Speaker 2: worrisome that companies may be skimping on the products which

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Speaker 2: have been inaccessible to many. Here's another quote from unwomen

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Speaker 2: dot org. There's growing consistence that managing administration is a

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Speaker 2: health rather than hygiene issue, and above all, a human

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Speaker 2: rights and gender equality issue. Today, six hundred and fourteen

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Speaker 2: million women and girls are living in conflict affected areas,

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Speaker 2: and the number of women and girls fleeing conflict, crisis

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Speaker 2: and disasters is rising. The United Nations Refugee Agency estimated

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three that women and girls accounted for

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Speaker 2: fifty one percent of all refugees. Menstruation does not stop

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Speaker 2: during crisis yet menstrual hygiene management and women's girls' health

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Speaker 2: and dignity are low priorities during a crisis response. During

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Speaker 2: transit and in camps, displaced women and girls often lack

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Speaker 2: privacy to change and wash internally. Displace women and girls

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Speaker 2: in me and Mar preferred a disposable sanitary paths to

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Speaker 2: clause once they learned how to use and dispose them

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Speaker 2: and u WIN Women's recent report from Gaza, more than

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Speaker 2: five hundred twenty thousand women and girls of reproductive age

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Speaker 2: lack access to items to support their hygiene, help and dignity.

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Speaker 2: They are resorting to using cloth or sponges because they

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Speaker 2: cannot access menstrual products. You and Women estimates that ten

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Speaker 2: million disposable mintrul pads are needed each month to cover

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Speaker 2: the knees and preserve the dignity of women and girls

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Speaker 2: in Gaza. In Lebanon, during the economic crisis, the prices

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Speaker 2: of minstrl pads and other hygiene items made within the

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Speaker 2: country increase by ninety eight to two hundred and thirty

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Speaker 2: four percent. In April twenty twenty, sixty six percent of

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Speaker 2: girls said they could not afford to buy menstrual products,

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Speaker 2: and since menstruation is a taboo topic. Most girls and

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Speaker 2: women do not talk about it. So there's so much

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Speaker 2: to be had about this conversation that the fact that

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Speaker 2: they are again tampax is saying that they have not

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Speaker 2: done this. It is FDA regulated all these things. But

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Speaker 2: from the testimony of those who are having periods that

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Speaker 2: are saying their going through so many boxes and having

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Speaker 2: to pay so much more because they have to have more,

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Speaker 2: it seems us.

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Speaker 1: It does, especially because they're a big company. One, yes,

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Speaker 1: but two, we just have so much evidence from companies

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Speaker 1: that have been doing this right. And during the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: there was a whole there was this question of they've

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Speaker 1: gotten more expensive and it seems like I'm getting less

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Speaker 1: Like there was that whole thing about I'm finding them

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Speaker 1: on eBay for hundreds of dollars, right, which is a yeah,

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Speaker 1: if it's a health need, that's ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: It's silly. So all these things and again with those

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Speaker 2: who can't access it, and that's just the conversation in general,

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Speaker 2: like we don't even think about the fact oftentimes people

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Speaker 2: don't even think about the fact that this as a need,

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Speaker 2: and the fact that yes, this is a health issue

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Speaker 2: is becoming a health issue when it's not excess and

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Speaker 2: it's not available, and then that people don't want to

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Speaker 2: talk about it or don't want to help, and the

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Speaker 2: fact that it's not affordable everywhere just because it doesn't

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Speaker 2: affect everyone. Still fifty one percent is a pretty high

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Speaker 2: number that they don't care about it. There's so many

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Speaker 2: things as well as the fact that it ostracizes many

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Speaker 2: people if they're on their periods. We know this taboo

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Speaker 2: has really really up a whole society, like a whole

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Speaker 2: community of people of women and those who have uteruses.

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Speaker 2: We know this. So there are a lot to still

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Speaker 2: be wanting when it comes to period products anyway, and

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Speaker 2: overall uterine health, and as well as we need to

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Speaker 2: be questioning the corporations and what they're doing to increase profits. Again,

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Speaker 2: I think I wonder if they're trying to gaslight us

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Speaker 2: about these products and about the fact that women are

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Speaker 2: going through them so much quicker, and if there's a

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Speaker 2: whole ongoing crisis that so many women are affected by this.

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Speaker 2: We need to have a bigger conversation about what is

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Speaker 2: happening that's true like one or the other. Yah, someone

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Speaker 2: needs to be looking into this in fact, just as

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Speaker 2: a reminder when it comes to testing, and I've said

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Speaker 2: this earlier, these products are often often can lead to

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Speaker 2: inaccurate information. As BuzzFeed reports, there's another factor that can't

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Speaker 2: be ignored. Traditionally, we haven't tested tampon absorbacy with real blood,

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Speaker 2: so the absorbency data would come to rely on doesn't

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Speaker 2: accurately reflect how well a tampon works in real world conditions.

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Speaker 2: In August twenty twenty three, Scientific American reported on a

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Speaker 2: paper that found that tampon absorbacy numbers can be misleading

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Speaker 2: because they're typically tested with a salinge solution that's just

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Speaker 2: slightly thicker than water. When the tampons were tested with

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Speaker 2: real blood, researchers found they could hold much more or

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Speaker 2: much less, depending on the brand and size. They tested

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Speaker 2: twenty one different period products and found that tampons of

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Speaker 2: various sizes could hold a range between twenty and thirty

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Speaker 2: four milli laters of blood and they continue saying. According

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Speaker 2: to study authors, this was the first time tampon absorbancy

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Speaker 2: was tested with actual blood. The fact that tampons were

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Speaker 2: invented in nineteen twenty nine and it took until twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three for researchers to test them with actual blood

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Speaker 2: says a lot about how period stigma has hurt our

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Speaker 2: understanding of women's health. Hopefully the study is a step

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Speaker 2: toward period products that better reflect how much blood we

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Speaker 2: lose each month. So literally last year, yeah, yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: tweet twenty four.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. And I will also add for anyone who's had

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Speaker 1: a period, you know a lot of times it's not

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Speaker 1: just blood. Yeah, there's clots, there's mucus, there's like thicker

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Speaker 1: stuff right that I get it might be difficult to test,

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Speaker 1: but the fact that you just got to doing the

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Speaker 1: blood part is still not quite capturing the pictures.

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Speaker 2: What is happening. And I think that's that conversation again

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Speaker 2: about like they don't want to learn, they don't want

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Speaker 2: to help women. Yeah, they don't care, and they just

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Speaker 2: wanted like, well, wills give it a band aid and

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Speaker 2: want you to be quiet things quick, complaint and we

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Speaker 2: don't want to hear about that, and then like when

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Speaker 2: you actually start talking about it. Literally, I didn't know

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Speaker 2: until I think I was graduated college that's the amount

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Speaker 2: of class that I had was not normal. I was like,

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Speaker 2: oh really, huh? Like it was a midwife. Actually she

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Speaker 2: was like talking to me and worked at the kind

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Speaker 2: of colleges, and she was like, Okay, yeah, no, you're

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Speaker 2: not supposed to have that many claws and if they're

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Speaker 2: that big, that's probably why you were in so much pain.

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Speaker 2: I was like, oh, oh, okay, and then like it

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Speaker 2: just blew my mind because I maybe a couple of

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Speaker 2: these things were you weren't asked. You don't ask questions

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Speaker 2: because you don't think to ask if you have nothing

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Speaker 2: to compare whether you think you're fine and this is normal,

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Speaker 2: and you find out it's not actually normal, you're like.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's incredibly harmful because I feel like every

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Speaker 1: person I know has a story like that. I have

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Speaker 1: story like that because we don't talk about it, so

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Speaker 1: we don't know what's normal. And the really scary thing,

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Speaker 1: one of the really scary things is like, if we

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Speaker 1: look at our conversations around abortion in this country, that

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Speaker 1: becomes a huge deal. But no one who's making these

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Speaker 1: laws knows anything right at boat periods because none of

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Speaker 1: us apparently to right.

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Speaker 2: And let's talk about the fact that they're trying to

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Speaker 2: take away birth control in some areas and some people

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Speaker 2: some women always wonder of them use birth control to

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Speaker 2: help manage your period again, because it's so awful and

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Speaker 2: we're not even jumping into indometriosis and all of the

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Speaker 2: information that's lacking from that, and how painful and how

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Speaker 2: disruptive it is to many of the people with the

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Speaker 2: universes and what that's like for them. It's annoy like

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Speaker 2: this is such a ridiculous conversation. But the fact that

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Speaker 2: the corporations are backtracking and be like no, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 2: no no no, not bad tracking, but possibly possibly like

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Speaker 2: not giving everything, not giving what is sufficient essentially for

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Speaker 2: women to sustain good menstrual health. It's just kind of like,

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Speaker 2: that's not even talking about toxic shock syndrome because people

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Speaker 2: probably don't want to change out their tampas because they

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Speaker 2: feel embarrassed and or they don't have them, like I can't,

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Speaker 2: it's too much. But anyway, this is what I woke

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Speaker 2: came up on my for you page. If you have

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Speaker 2: thoughts on this, or if you actually feel like you

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Speaker 2: can give an example to that, let us know, because

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Speaker 2: this is interesting. I think it's so newly developed that

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Speaker 2: I hope this doesn't go away. It's like I want

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Speaker 2: to hear more conversations and people being held accountable and

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Speaker 2: then you know, fixing this.

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Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely wow. If you would like to send those

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Speaker 1: thoughts to us, you can Her email is STUFFI your

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Speaker 1: Mom stuff at i heeartmedia dot com. You might us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter at Mom's a Podcast, or on Instagram in

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Speaker 1: TikTok at steff I never told You're on YouTube. We

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Speaker 1: have a book you can get wherever you get your books,

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Speaker 1: and we have a cheap bobok store if you want

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Speaker 1: some merchandise. Thanks as always too, our super producer Christina,

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Speaker 1: executive producer Maya, and our contributor Joey. Thank you and

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Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening. Steffan never told you to

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Speaker 1: direction my heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: you can check out the heart Radio app Apple Podcasts

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.