Cramps? PMS? Bloating? Headaches? And the list goes on. Yes, we are talking about periods! How many women would spend copious amounts of money to make their ‘time of the month’ easier?
Roughly $15 billion is spent on tampons and pads every year in the US. Today, it’s estimated that 80 percent of US women of menstruating age use tampons, with the average American using more than 16,000 tampons in her lifetime. 16,000 tampons all lined up in a row would span a full mile!
While it’s become a societal norm to say ‘ew, gross periods!’ they’re not going anywhere. Taking a look through history, we can see that a lack of innovation over the past centuries has created a huge financial opportunity today for startups to address this ENORMOUS yet underserved market.
Ancient Times – women used what?!
The world’s oldest printed medical document, The Papyrus Ebers, describes Ancient Egyptians making tampons out of softened papyrus as early as the 15th Century BCE.
Women in Ancient Rome fashioned tampons out of wool. In Indonesia, women used vegetable fibers, whereas women in Equatorial Africa used rolls of grass. Hawaiian women undertook the itchy solution of using the furry parts of the native hapu’u fern. And ancient Japanese women made tampons from paper, secured them with bandages and changed these dressings between 10 and 12 times every day!
1931 – Tis Decreed, the Invention of the Tampon
In the 1930s, the first tampon was patented. The name combined the words tampon and vaginal packs to make… you guessed it: Tampax! Tampax sold for 35 cents, delivered by mail in discreet paper-wrapped boxes of 10.
This is only after Kotex passed on the tampon as they believed it would not be successful.
Tampax tampons were advertised to married women only, for fear that one could lose her virginity by using it…
As for other menstruation management, pads had entered Western markets in 1879 and menstrual cups were invented around the late 1930s. However, the first menstrual cups were made of aluminum (yes aluminum!) or hard rubber, not the silicone they’re more often made from today.
100 years, zero innovation
In 1975, Procter & Gamble advertised a new tampon that was to last the duration of a period. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. Instead, it gave rise to thousands of Toxic Shock Syndrome cases, many of which were fatal. Now you know where that warning label came from.
The word “period” was finally spoken out loud in a commercial for the first time ever by Courtney Cox (thanks Monica!) in 1985 for a Tampax ad. Only 37 years ago!
Noteworthy product ‘improvements’ over the century would not impress Silicon Valley. It included the mind blowing addition of two strings, braiding the strings (move over Steve Jobs), and adding fragrance. Only in 1997 did a plastic applicator hit the markets. As for other products, menstrual cups made of silicone, which they are typically made from today, hit the market and mini-pads also made a successful splash. Exciting stuff, we know.
From a regulatory standpoint, around this time tampons were reclassified by the FDA from the ‘cosmetics’ category (really) to ‘medical devices’. Soon after, new legislation passed that required cosmetics manufacturers to list ingredients on their packaging. However, the same rules did not apply to medical devices. To this day, a tube of mascara or a bottle of shampoo has to come with a list of ingredients, but not a box of tampons.
Today – Menstrual care beyond the tampon
In recent years, we’ve seen a trend towards more transparency and broader consumer awareness. Women are demanding to know what they are putting in their bodies.
Organic tampons like Cora (which has raised $34m of VC funding since 2019), Lola (which has raised $70m of VC funding since 2014) and other organic feminine care products are surging in market demand; with the massive P&G acquisition of organic menstrual product company This is L proving out exits in this space.
Meanwhile other brands have launched successful environmentally friendly innovations; from Vyld’s seaweed tampon and Planera’s flushable pad, to Flex’s reusable menstrual disks.
Innovation is reaching new heights as Aunt Flow, one of our portfolio companies, is revolutionizing public and corporate bathrooms – starting with providing free tampons and pads to bathroom goers. This B2B business model is new and exciting for an industry full of D2C brands. (More on this here!)
At Amboy Street, we see startups looking beyond just period products, extending to solutions for menstrual health and hormone-related conditions. This includes the explosion of period trackers available on the market including Flo (valued at $800m – more in our blog here), Glow and Clue to name a few.
Flo Vitamins and Marea Wellness tackle PMS relief, while Feminade and Inne offer hormonal testing and health education, and Allara and Pollie provide support for those suffering from PCOS – a common health problem caused by an imbalance of reproductive hormones. Of course, hormone testing and tracking also lend a hand to natural contraception and fertility testing.
We at Amboy Street know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. We are excited to continue to watch the brilliant solutions come to market that allow women to manage their menstrual health and hormonal health with ease. While the lack of attention to this area throughout history is frustrating, startups and progressive investors today are reaping the benefits by taking stakes in this underserved market that is desperate for 21st century solutions.
Next, we’ll look into the Fertility and Maternal Health market, why it’s been underserved, and what’s happening in the space today. Stay tuned & subscribe!
