Dollars and Sense of Pads and Tampons

Disposable menstrual products pose a threatening cost to the health of our environment and our own bodies. But what about the cost to our pocket books? Every woman will spend a different amount, but we made some rough calculations to give us a range. We said above in the Environmental Cost section, that the average woman uses roughly 10,000-20,000 feminine hygiene products in her lifetime. This range is based on the estimate calculated for 30 years of menstruating (e.g. age 15-45), using 5-8 pads, tampons, or pantiliners a day for a 5-7 day period. Clearly, many variables could add or subtract to this estimate, such as onset of menstruation and/or menopause, months without periods due to pregnancies and breastfeeding, and volume of menstrual flow.

In a recent visit to the grocery store, I calculated that pads, tampons, and pantiliners range in price from about $.05 to $.35 each. Most products came in at about $.20. That’s $2000-$4000 in a lifetime, or $70-$140 per year. Some will argue that’s only about $6-$12 per month – not a big deal, right? But it is something you need every month, and manufacturers have done the math, too - and they know that you’ll be coming back to buy their product month after month, year after year.

So, what about the cost of using washable menstrual pads? Depending on your flow and your laundry habits, you may use anywhere from 5 – 50 washable pads each month. If you have a medium flow, using only 5 pads per day, and you wash them every day, you could get away with only 5 pads. If you have a heavy flow and use 8 pads per day for a 7 day period, washing them after it’s all over, you would need over 50 pads. The average price of our washable pads is $6 per soaker & body combo. With this wide range, you could spend anywhere between $30 and $300 on your supply of pads. Fresh Moon pads are estimated to last about 10 years, so you will need to replace your pads once each decade. Most women need between 10-25 pads each month. If you bought that amount three times over the course of your menstruating years you’re looking at spending -  a total of $180-$450.*

To put that into perspective, even if you were at the high end (50 pad stash) and spent $900 on pads, for 30 years of menstruating, you’d be spending $30/year, or only $2.52. /month! If you bought 25 pads and spent $450, that would be $15/year, or only $1.23/month! Maybe you’re already in your 30’s and only have an estimated 10 years of menstruating left. Even so, you would still be saving a bundle over the next 10 years by purchasing re-usable pads rather than throwaway products. If you bought 25 pads, you would be spending only $15/year, or $1.23/month!

What about the costs of laundering your pads? Unlike cloth diapers, cloth menstrual pads are quite small; even a whole week’s worth don’t add up to a very large load of laundry – and that only once a month. Using our figures for calculating the cost of laundering cloth diapers, we came up with the following:

Energy

Your energy consumption will vary according to whether you use gas, oil, coal or electricity to heat your water and to power your washer and dryer. A recent study by the National Electric Power Research Institute determined that the national average for a cold/cold wash costs 10 cents. To dry for one hour on hot is 40 cents. One wash/dry cycle runs you about 50 cents per month, or $180 for 30 years of menstruating. Drying your clothes with a gas dryer will cost you less, and if you have a front-loading, energy efficient washer, you will spend about half the energy to wash and dry your clothes. If you skip the dryer and line-dry your laundry, you cut your energy costs by nearly 60%.

Water

Water utility prices vary a great deal across the nation, so you will have to check your water bill and figure out what you’re paying. A recent water bill in our household told us we used 10 units of water in one month. One unit equals 100 cubit feet of water, or 748 gallons. The current price per unit of water in our city is 64 cents, or 85 cents per 1000 gallons. A typical top-loading washing machine uses approximately 40 gallons of water for a full wash. To wash one load of pads per month, you’d use 40 gallons of water each month, or 14,400 gallons for 30 years. So, at $.85/1000 gallons, we’d spend about $.03 per month or $12.24 for 30 years. You’d spend that much on disposable menstrual products in less than two months!

Detergent

We recommend a cold/cold wash with a low-fragrance/fragrance-free detergent (fragrances can cause you irritation). Do not use bleach or fabric softener, as the former will destroy your pads and the latter will coat them with a film that makes them less absorbent. You may or may not choose to soak your pads in some sort of stain-removing solution. Baking soda, oxygen bleach, or Bac Out are great choices, but a simple cold/cold wash with detergent will get your pads clean. You will probably wash 2 small loads or one large load a month (if that), each option using the same amount of detergent. For 30 years, you will run 360 loads of wash (720 small loads). Therefore, $6.00/50 loads X 360 loads = $43.20 for 30 years, or $0.12 per month!

Summary of costs for 30 years of using washable menstrual pads:

    Total Pads, Energy, Water, Detergent for 30 years  = $385.44

or $1.07 per month!

Compare that to spending upwards of $4000 on throwaway products during a lifetime of menstruating!

Throw your pads in with Baby’s diapers and you won’t spend an extra penny during those diapering years!

*Number of pads used by each woman, each month will vary; this number based on an estimated need for a five day period of medium flow.

**This number based on one city’s water prices. Check with your own water company for the cost of water in your area.

Opportunity Costs

So I save some money and help the environment by using washable menstrual products? What about my own time, energy and convenience? This is a valid question, and clearly disposable products make the most of our 21^st century desire to be quick and efficient with everything in our life. So, let’s look at some of the opportunity costs of cloth versus disposable menstrual products.

First, “Time Shopping” versus “Time Washing.”  Really, I think these both fall in the same category: we all go to the grocery store several times each month and we all do laundry several times a month. The extra time it takes to grab a box of pads at the store is about as negligible as throwing a dozen or two dirty cloth pads in with another load – or even doing a separate load. But what about those times when it’s 10:30 pm and you realize you’re down to one pad? You a) need to run to the store, or b) need to wash a load of laundry. Personally, I’d rather stay home and wash a load than make a late night run to the store – and certainly my husband isn’t too keen on running this errand for me! Besides, if I do go to the store, you can be sure I’ll buy things I don’t need and end up spending more than the $6.00 on the box of tampons!

Next, what about the “gross factor?” Some women have confided to me that they are hesitant about using cloth pads because either their husbands are grossed out at the idea or because they feel that they would be disgusted having to handle their soiled pads. The more I thought about this, the sadder I became. We have been told that our menstrual cycle is a dirty, shameful time and we should hide away. But isn’t our period a sign of our fertility, symbol of being a woman and something to be proud of? Embrace your cycle and appreciate what gifts it has given and shall give in the future.

Besides, is it really any less gross to pull out a bloody tampon and wrap it up in toilet paper – or worse, flush it and clog the plumbing? Period blood is a natural, beautiful part of our lives as women. But for those who are grossed out by it (be it you or your spouse), I think washing re-usable pads is actually a way to be less grossed out. With disposable products, the message is: Yuck! Throw it away! Don’t look at it for too long and don’t think about what it really is! With washable products, you see again and again that the blood washes away in the laundry even as our fluids are washed out of our bodies each month as part of the cycle of life. My uterus cleanses and renews itself even as I clean and re-use my cloth pads. My uterus continues on as a sanctuary for new life, even as my body works to preserve the life of this planet. Stains on my pads can be reminders of the power of my blood, but you need not even worry about stains: either use a good stain remover or choose from the colorful assortment of cloths for your pads where stains simply blend in.

What about working women, or us stay-at-home types who still like to leave the house? What’s the opportunity cost of using washable pads when away from home? With disposable pads and tampons, you still have to make the effort to fill your purse before you leave home – you just don’t bring the used products home with you. So, with washable pads, the question is more about the effort to bring the soiled ones home than about carrying the clean ones out. As with going out and about with cloth diapers, the easy answer is this: just bring along a washable tote bag and fill it with your used pads. These synthetic bags are water-resistant and wash up very easily – just throw them in with your pads, or other laundry (and hang to dry). As far as keeping your clean pads clean until you need them, you can carry one tote bag for clean pads, and one tote for used pads.

Making Your Choice: Weighing all the costs of menstrual products

Both cloth and disposable menstrual products make an impact on your wallet and your environment. You will need to choose which costs you are willing to live with, and determine what is the best stewardship of your time, money, and both personal and world resources. Some people lose little sleep over the environment, but are aware of every penny that is spent in their house, and they want to keep those pennies to a minimum. Others have the money to spend on throwaway products, but are very concerned about the environmental impact of their disposable spending.

I must confess that the first time I saw an advertisement for reusable menstrual products I was turned off. The more that I learned about the detriment to our environment, health and pocket book, the more open to the idea I became. But it wasn’t until the first time I put cloth next to my skin and felt the difference that I was convinced. It only makes sense, since I believe cloth diapers to be far superior in every aspect to disposables that I would find the same to be true with cloth menstrual pads. Now, I can’t imagine putting disposable on my babies or myself!

If saving $2,000-$3,000 sounds good to you; if saving the waterways and landfills of our world tons of solid waste sounds like a good idea; and if you want to have natural, safe and comfortable products on your bottom for a major portion of your life, then you have chosen to use cloth menstrual products. And we at Fresh Moon want to help support you in this choice!

We hope you find our articles and information helpful. We hope you feel free to contact us with questions, concerns, or other matters at sales@fresh-moon.com. We also hope you enjoy using our cloth menstrual products and find them a good fit for your family and your lifestyle.

For those of you who choose not to take the path of cloth menstrual products, we hope that you have found our information useful and insightful. We hope that in your weeks, months, and years of caring for your menstrual needs, you will choose and use your disposable products wisely. We hope that at least you will choose unbleached, fragrance free pads and tampons. We hope you change them frequently and take good care of your delicate parts. And we hope you dispose of the waste properly.

[1] This range is based on the estimate calculated for 30 years of menstruating (e.g. age 15-45), using 5-8 pads, tampons, or pantiliners a day for a 5-7 day period. Clearly, many variables could add or subtract to this estimate, such as onset of menstruation and/or menopause, months without periods due to pregnancies and breastfeeding, and volume of menstrual flow.

[2] www.georgiastrait.org/Articles2004/toxic_sewage.php

[3] Armstrong, Liz and Scott, Adrienne, Whitewash: Exposing the health and environmental dangers of women’s sanitary products and disposable diapers – what you can do about it!  Harper Collins, Toronto, 1992, pp 83-84.

[4] Et al, p. 91.

[5] Shannon, Marilyn M., Fertility, Cycles and Nutrition: Can What You Eat Affect Your Menstrual Cycles and Your Fertility?, The Couple to Couple League International, Inc., Cincinatti, 1996, p. 86, 88.

[6] Armstrong, p. 92.

[7] Armstrong, p. 99.

[8] Armstrong, pp. 99-100.