'A bad thing for women': Tampon shortage among challenges Upper Valley women are facing

A nationwide supply shortage of tampons is resulting in empty shelves at major pharmacy retailers, including in the Upper Valley, higher prices and now the attention of New Hampshire lawmakers and women's health advocates, who call the shortage another difficult burden being placed on women and families.

Deborah Jordan Brooks, a Dartmouth College professor of women's, gender and sexuality studies, said that this tampon shortage is "a bad thing for women," one that adds "insult to injury" to women who have already had to endure a litany of challenges, from difficulty finding childcare to formula shortages to defunding of Planned Parenthood health services by states, including New Hampshire.

Brooks, who has advocated for improved access locally and globally to feminine hygiene and menstrual health, said she worries in particular about the impact of these shortages on women and families in poverty.

"There are so many things that women need for themselves and their families right now that they don't have access to," Brooks said. "So many things are hitting right now [and] it tends to be the people who are the most marginalized who tend to be at the mercy of the economic changes and shortages before everyone else."

U.S. manufacturers of feminine hygiene products — including Procter & Gamble, maker of Tampax, and Edgewater Personal Care, which makes Playtex — have reported "temporary delays" to fill orders of tampon products, citing a combination of supply-chain issues and a sizable growth of retail demand.

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