Women and gender minorities face numerous hegemonic challenges globally. We are not only united by oppression, we are also united by beautiful cerebral experiences that makes us who we are. Our diverse experiences help us find comfort in our physical and metaphysical authenticity. Our bodies and our vessels are not the end of our stories but the beginning. By living our lives authentically, we learn ways to breathe life, love and understanding into our divine bodies marked by earthly understandings. By applying critical thinking and existential analytical skills, we learn to hold our leaders accountable and innovate new solutions. By expanding our views, we can start to see the Trojan Horses in our homes and neighborhood stores carrying bodily terror.
This essay aims to uncover some of the historical patterns and institutions in the United States that impact our bodies from the inside out. In this piece I look at the poor regulation on tampons and pads as an oppositional force on the bodies of those needing them. I also ask readers to scrutinize the faith they place in public agencies. Since women and other gender minorities will use (and pay for) over 10,000 sanitary products like pads and tampons over their lifetime, why aren’t the manufacturers held to high scrutiny?
Tampons and pads are not luxury items, rather, they are necessities. Having sanitary pads and napkins allows menstruators to have a “perceived” increased quality of life. It allows kids to go to school, adults to go to work instead of sitting at home feeling ashamed of their bodies’ natural hygiene processes. These are real benefits, however, they come at a great cost.
Pads and tampons are federally regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to the FDA, they are regulated as medical devices and evaluated on the following categories: “absorbency, strength, and integrity; and whether tampons enhance the growth of certain harmful bacteria or alter normal bacterial growth in the vagina.”
Based on these standards, most people would feel confident in inserting these medical devices into their own bodies and introducing pads and tampons as an option for small children who are menstruating. The blanket term “safety” makes people feel like the necessary parties have done their due diligence and consumers can use these (necessary) medical products to enhance our quality of life. However, upon further examination, there’s a lot of information about these devices that remains unclear to consumers.
One of the first areas that remain unclear and blatantly so, are the lack of ingredients on tampons and pads. The FDA doesn’t require manufacturers disclose their ingredients. By scrutinizing the ingredients in brands like Always, Kotex, we find they include aluminum, alcohol, fragrances, hydrocarbons and bleaches. Researchers in universities have conducted more sophisticated testing and found pesticide residue, parabens, chemicals linked to hormone disruption, cancer and more. Chemicals found in tampons and pads are so dangerous, some have been deemed unsafe for products that will never see the insides of our bodies like paint strippers.
With all this available information, why is this allowed? Why are we still blindly using our financial power to support our demise?
What does the FDA aim to do with these findings? Are they aware of them? If so, how long have they been aware? What do they plan to do about it?
How will this federal agency be held accountable for the harms compounded by their negligent use of words like “safe”?
In 2019, New York became the first state to require all ingredients in sanitary napkins be disclosed. The first sanitary napkins or pad were made commercial in 1896. Tampons were first made commercial almost 80 years later in 1975. It took almost 45 years from when tampons were commercialized to the American public for ONE state to require all ingredients to be listed.
As menstruators, people are warned very heavily about Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS). There are websites, labels, videos and even session in health class about it. A lot of tampons have a TSS warning, besides the occasional coupon and other advertising material, that’s usually the only dialogue on tampons providing any information. This slip with this important warning is ironic and misleading. While TSS is a major risk, it’s interesting that manufacturers are willing to warn consumers of harms caused as result of consumer error, rather than the harms associated with the harmful chemicals manufacturers knowingly included as ingredients in menstrual hygiene products.
It’s important for the public to be aware of what they do not know and have the skills to ask questions to get the answers necessary for public safety. It’s important for the public who makes good faith purchases for hygiene necessities to examine their consumption of goods. As a citizen, it’s imperative that we hold federal agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services accountable for the safety of medical devices that impact such a significant portion of the population.
While diva cups and other healthier options are gaining popularity, the lessons learned from tampons, pads and federal responsibility are important ones. It’s important to scrutinize the products we consume that interact with our most intimate body parts. It’s important to demand higher health standards for gender minorities to improve their quality of living.
Read more from the links below:
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/facts-tampons-and-how-use-them-safely