It is a common irritation of women that men seem to need to explain how things work to them, assuming they wouldn’t possibly know already. In fact, the term “mansplaining” has been coined to describe the regular occurrence. Now, a man has managed to annoy women as he explains to them — incorrectly — just how many tampons per year they should need.
According to The Guardian, a man has done the math and calculated just how many tampons per year women need while they are menstruating.
“So the average period is 10 to 35ml of blood, each tampon holds about 5ml, so seven tampons per cycle,” the man explains in a post that was shared on Twitter (Not Safe for Work content: swearing).
“Lets be generous and say 10 for those ladies with an extra-juicy uterine lining. Nine periods a year equals 90 tampons max.”
In addition, the man in his post stated that women should stop complaining about how much tampons cost.
“Cut down on your venti frapps and stop whining. This isn’t a first world problem.”
The man even suggested where tampons could be purchased in order to help save money.
“You can get a 64 pack on Amazon for £7.90 plus shipping,” he advised.
“Buy two packs, save on shipping and have 128 tampons for the year, that’s about £20 here or their [sic] for a year’s periods.”
This week in #mansplaining women learn about tampons, how many you need each month and how you can afford them. https://t.co/ZfRIIRJd2P
— Amy Bedard (@littlestbee) March 7, 2019
Of course, for every woman who has had a period and used tampons while menstruating knows this is already way off. For starters, the average cycle is 28 days, meaning women can menstruate up to 12 times per year. Although, as Young Women’s Health points out, 9 cycles is an acceptable number of cycles per year.
In addition to that, as Insider points out, a tampon should be changed every four to eight hours to avoid the potentially dangerous risk of infections developing or instances of Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS). In fact, Katharine O’Connell White, MD, MPH, director, Fellowship in Family Planning, Department of OB-GYN at Boston University, Boston Medical Center, suggests that the recommendation of eight hours is actually pushing it regarding vaginal health. She suggests women wear a pad overnight to avoid potential risks.
So, using that guideline, and the assumption that the average period length is five days, a woman should change her tampon no less than 15 times per monthly cycle, based on waiting eight hours between changes. Already, this is more than double what was recommended by the man in his post.
As to be expected, many women commented on the Twitter post of his calculations.
“Does he think that a period goes on a holiday?” One Twitter user wrote.
“Like it’s getting to Christmas, time for a trip to Mexico. Like it’s an employee.”
Other women pointed out that 35ml is equivalent to one tablespoon of blood per month. And, for many women, that is a significantly lower amount than their monthly cycle.
Others also pointed out the dangers of leaving tampons in for long periods of time.
“Do you want TSS? Because that’s how you get TSS.”