The real toxic shock
Why is nothing being done about the health hazards in feminine hygiene products?
The first time you look down at your underwear and see red your mind floods with panic.
What is this?
What is happening?
What do I do?
Who do I tell?
Has my life completely changed?
After you’ve filled your underwear with wads of toilet paper and raided your mom or sister’s stash of period products, your thoughts immediately go to how to exist in every single way in the universe now that you bleed. Can you walk the same? Sit cross-legged? Does everyone know?
The last thing on your mind is whether this bulky diaper-like thing in your underwear is toxic.
This is never something a woman should have to question. Ever.
Recently I came across a TikTok of a 28-year-old woman sharing a story about the extreme discomfort she’s experienced after every period since her first cycle. For over 15 years she’d used the same product: Always pads (made by Proctor & Gamble). She treated her symptoms of redness, swelling and itchiness as if it was a yeast infection, spending countless dollars on over-the-counter medication. But testing showed no signs of a yeast infection, bacterial vaginosis (BV), or STIs. It wasn’t until she went to a gynecologist who immediately asked her what menstrual products she was using did she get an answer.
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The gynecologist told her it was the pads–the Always brand, specifically–and to stop using them immediately. She then ordered the woman to tell everyone she knew to stop using Always pads.
It wasn’t a secret
You would think the medical community was gatekeeping this information given how long it took this woman to get a “diagnosis” for her symptoms. Yet, over 30 years ago, researchers were studying the irritable effects of Always pads on women’s vaginas.
A 1996 study looks at 28 women in Montreal between 1991 and 1994, all of whom reported the same list of symptoms and using Always pads. All the cases in the study had to meet the criteria for “itching or burning of areas that would be in contact with a sanitary napkin (mons pubis, external surfaces of the vulva and perineum) and onset of symptoms at least 1 day after the use of sanitary napkins was started and less than 5 days after the use was stopped.”
When the clinicians asked their patients what products they used, all the women responded saying they used Always pads, and that changing the brand eliminated the symptoms. They added that they had not seen any similar cases from women using other brands of pads.
What’s most startling is that the cases in this study are over 30-years-old. And the TikToker is reporting the same symptoms as the women in the study from using the same product. Ergo, Proctor & Gamble has not done anything to change whatever it is about their Always pads that is causing this issue. For over 30 years, they have been producing the same product despite it causing health concerns for women.
And now for the results
A decade ago, Women’s Voices Against the Earth ordered a test of Always products that were quite revealing. This was the first time pads were tested for toxic chemical compounds. Several feminine hygiene products, both unscented and scented, were tested and found to contain carcinogens, irritants, and developmental and reproductive toxins. According to the organization, none of the chemicals (which are recognized as toxins by U.S. government health agencies) are disclosed on the product by the manufacturer (Proctor & Gamble).
It remains “unclear,” the organization says, “which components of the pad may be the sources of the volatile toxic emissions.” And that there needs to be “more testing of these products to better characterize the chemical exposures and to better understand the potential health impacts of those exposures.”
Chemical testing on menstrual products started in the early 2000s when researchers found dioxins and furans in several brands of tampons. Dioxins and furans are small, toxic compounds found in the environment. They can be found in foods, the air, as well as tobacco smoke and burning of waste. Once they make their way into the body, they are stored in body fat.
A study published in 2022, found that there weren’t “statistically significant variations” of these volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in women across a menstrual cycle. They concluded more testing needed to be done on a larger group (they studied 98 women) but that menstrual products could be a “potential source for VOCs.”
This past year, a study was released showing tampons contain lead, which led to a huge outrage by women and feminist groups–for good reason. This study “evaluated the concentrations of 16 metal(loid)s in 30 tampons from 14 tampon brands and 18 product lines and compared the concentrations by tampon characteristics.” Measurable traces of all 16 metals tested were found in the tampons, including several toxic metals, including lead, arsenic and cadmium.
As of 2021, an estimated 52-86 per cent of menstruating people in the U.S. use tampons. With over half the population eligible to bleed at some point in their lives, that’s a lot of tampons and a lot of lives being put at risk for health issues.
When these toxins are absorbed into the body vaginally (via tampons), there is no first-pass metabolism or detoxification process. This means the toxins are not being filtered out through the liver, and are instead being absorbed right into the bloodstream.
In light of these recent findings, some experts have called out the FDA for stricter product monitoring. The FDA is meant to regulate the safety of tampons, but does not currently test them for chemicals. The administration’s only requirement is that tampons don’t contain pesticide residue or dioxin, states Rachel Treisman on NPR’s All Things Considered.
The only public warning women have been given is for toxic shock syndrome (TSS)–the name alone will send a young menstruator into a panic, hunched over on the toilet reading the small print in the little folded up pamphlet inside every tampon box. The warnings are clear: never leave a tampon in for longer than eight hours or you might die–well, that’s how I interpreted it when I was a young teenager. But how could you not panic when basic warnings sound like this: Toxic shock syndrome is a rare, life-threatening complication of certain types of bacterial infections.1
The only solution offered is to never leave your tampon in for longer than the recommended eight hours. Or use a pad, which we now know has its own health complications.
The future of feminine hygiene
While menstrual products have made some major advancements with the introduction of period panties and menstrual cups over the last several years, more traditional methods of menstrual blood collection are still being pushed onto shelves for women to purchase and use month after month.
What are we supposed to do to keep ourselves safe? We can change the products we use. But we can also ask for more from companies that are producing these chemical-laden products (and making a killing off).
The global feminine hygiene market rakes in billions of dollars every year. It’s estimated that in 2024, the Canadian feminine hygiene market will generate almost half a billion USD in revenue. This is nothing compared to the global leader of this market, China, which will see over $12 billion US this year. To boot, China’s market is projected to grow over 5.5 per cent over the next five years, and Canada’s over 4.2 per cent.
This leads to one question I really don’t want to ask: How is women's health supposed to compete with a multi-billion dollar global market? And with this much revenue, why aren’t companies investing in women’s health studies?
Source: Mayo clinic