Shaylin Caldwell was wearing turquoise shorts when she got her first period at school.
She was leaning on the back of a chair in her seventh grade classroom when her teacher asked her if she wanted to sit down.
Caldwell didn’t quite understand why her teacher said that. Then her friend pointed to her shorts. Her turquoise shorts, now stained red, startled the 12-year-old.
“Like I knew what was happening, but I still didn’t really understand,” said Caldwell, now a 19-year-old student at Coastal Carolina University. “I didn’t know what a period felt like.”
With her jacket tied around her waist, she went to the bathroom, crying and embarrassed, to call her mom.
“She said the day was almost over, so I just had to ride it out,” she said. “I went to art class next and I couldn’t focus. I was devastated.”
As a college student, Caldwell now helps her school’s social justice club make period packs to donate to those in Horry County who sometimes have to “ride it out” each month when their period comes because they can’t afford essential products. But health advocates maintain that South Carolina can do more to improve access to these items, especially in schools.
The situation is particularly difficult in a state where nearly 15% of the population lives in poverty, and in Horry County, where nearly 13% of the population is impoverished, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent data.
For one person, purchasing period products such as tampons and panty liners can cost $20 per month, according to the National Organization for Women.
“We want to make sure that our parents aren’t being forced to choose between food and period products,” said Karen Culbreath-Dudley, executive director of the nonprofit The Period Project. “So as much as we can eliminate the financial burden of this, we want to do so.”
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The Period Project is what spurred the social justice club at Coastal to begin donating these products. Launched in Greenville in 2015, The Period Project seeks to make pads and tampons more accessible, particularly in schools, while educating and encouraging political leaders to minimize period poverty through local legislation.
“We are working tirelessly to get South Carolina up to speed,” said Elizabeth Marlowe, program operations manager for The Period Project. “In my opinion, if schools can provide toilet paper and soap and paper towels, then there’s no reason that we can’t also provide menstrual health products because it’s not a luxury.”
A bill that passed the S.C. House in early April and is now in the state Senate would make these essentials exempt from sales tax, thus joining 23 states (and the District of Columbia) that do not tax period products.
State Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Camden, said she is confident menstrual items will be tax free in South Carolina because the women in the state Senate all agree they should be.
“I am absolutely 100% percent certain that it will get to the floor,” Gustafson said. “These products are not luxury items, but medical necessities. This isn’t a female-only issue. This is a family issue. This isn’t gender politics. This is trying to get these products to a tax-exempt status.”
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This is a family issue.
That’s what Caldwell recalled after packing pads and tampons into bags to give to folks in Horry County.
“I had to make sure my little sister was ready,” she said. “I told her everything.”
A lot of preteens and teenagers are prepared. Many have products in their backpacks and their family’s warning that their body is about to change.
But many other children, some without the family guidance or means to purchase what’s needed, are not ready. And health advocates point out that some are still in elementary school and don’t know what to do when their period arrives.
Jayden Smith was 8 years old when she got her first period.
“I wasn’t ready,” the now 20-year-old Coastal student said. “My mom was able to walk me through it but there’s not a lot of women, especially Black women, that get that privilege.”
Smith’s story is not unusual.
“It is not unheard of for 8-, 9-year-olds to be starting their periods now,” said Brittany Gusic, a primary care physician at Conway Medical Center. “It is certainly very difficult at that age.”
Gusic said the reasons why some children are now getting their periods at younger ages are not thoroughly understood, but she noted that chemicals in the environment can impact hormones, and increases in body mass throughout the population are likely a contributing factor.
Smith, the Coastal student, said she and her mom struggled when she first got her period because her symptoms were so severe.
“They were very painful,” she said. “Some days, I couldn’t go to school because they were so painful. I went through a lot with the school system. I had to pass out for them to believe me.”
Not everyone’s period symptoms are the same.
“I have seen kids over the years that were missing a couple days of school every month because their periods were that bad,” Gusic, the doctor, said. “I mean, just doubled over in pain. School nurses can’t unfortunately give them ibuprofen and medications, but, you know, one would hope that they’d be compassionate to help them and give them support and get in touch with their parents and get them what they need.”
Tammy Trulove, director of health and safety services for Horry County Schools, said there are four or five students who are put on intermittent homebound status during their periods because of issues such as endometriosis or ovarian cysts.
But these students — and even students without such painful periods — are seldom prepared for their first year or two of periods because of how irregular they can be.
Kailynn Shaw, a 21-year-old Coastal student, said that to this day it’s still hard to be prepared because her periods have always been irregular and unpredictable ever since she got her first one in middle school.
“I grew up below the poverty line, so that made it hard,” she said. “I played basketball and our colors were white and blue and one day we were having a home game and I did not realize my period had started and I was already midgame. I got to the bathroom and I didn’t have a tampon or anything and none of my teammates did because I was one of the only ones with a period, so it was very frustrating. What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to handle this situation? It was really embarrassing.”
Health advocates emphasize that having pads and tampons available in schools would benefit students’ mental health and confidence, minimizing experiences like Shaw’s.
“Everybody has bowel movements, right? So you are not expected to go to school and bring your own toilet paper, right?” Gusic said. “Almost every woman has a period. So why is it that it’s not easily accessible for these young women who are having periods? So having those available to them in school would certainly be a benefit.”
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There is no state law that requires schools to have menstrual products available for students.
Horry County Schools officials said they do not have a specific line item in their budget for period products, but schools can still purchase them. Each school has a “miscellaneous” budget for incidentals.
“At the school level, the district allocates funding for the entire school in which the principal budgets for their respective departments,” HCS Chief Financial Officer John Gardner said.
“There is not a specific budget for [period products], but I would surmise that they would be part of their expenditures. There is also a budget at the District level that Tammy [Trulove] uses to provide additional support for the nurses.”
But there are still gaps in the system. At one time, HCS had pad machines installed in school bathrooms. But they were removed more than 15 years ago.
Trulove said many school nurses have taken on the responsibility of providing students with period products when their school’s supplies run low.
“I do have some that if they start running out, they will take it out of their own pockets,” she said. “They don’t want the kids not to have them.”
More than 20 states have legislation in place that addresses these issues. These states have focused on finding cost-efficient ways to put pads and tampons in school bathrooms.
For example, health advocates point out that when school nurses go to a local grocer or drug store to purchase pads for students, they are likely spending more money per item than, say, their school district or department of education would if they purchased the items in bulk straight from a manufacturer.
Aunt Flow, a for-profit company, offers period products at a lower cost per item than a drugstore or grocery store.
“Our business was made to be the solution for these problems,” Sarah Howard, director of marketing for Aunt Flow, said. “We sell to companies or school districts where they would pay for it the same [way] they pay for toilet paper or paper towels and those dispensers. We advocate that this should be a part of your budget. … It doesn’t make sense for someone to go to Walmart and buy all the soaps a building needs, so why do that with period products?”
For example, in Utah every K-12 public and charter school bathroom has free menstrual products available via an Aunt Flow dispenser.
The cost of these dispensers is around $300 each, which can be intimidating, Howard said. Yet a grassroots organization similar to The Period Project made it happen.
“I met with legislative leadership and said, ‘Hey, if you’re not willing to give [Utah] a tampon tax, what do you think about doing period products in schools?’” said Emily McCormick, founder of The Policy Project. “We were able to have a really thoughtful conversation about how period policy is actually public health policy, because it’s a health issue that affects 50% of every state’s population. And it impacts girls’ and women’s ability to succeed and to contribute to the economy.
“We ended up creating a public-private partnership. … We actually raised the money for the dispensers. So our legislators did not buy the dispensers, but they bought all the products. And they changed the law so that it would be mandated. The legislature funded the schools for two years, like enough products for two years. So I think we ended up at $2.3 million dollars of funding from the legislature for those products to get all the schools up and going. And then after two years, the schools have to absorb the cost.”
McCormick celebrated the breakthrough. Now, she said, Utah students, regardless of their family’s income, will have access to important supplies.
Multiple states have similar policies, including California, Connecticut and Delaware, but these states differ from South Carolina in terms of their politics, the cost of living and population size.
Alabama, however, is similar to the Palmetto State. Both have populations of about 5 million, both are mostly conservative politically and their median incomes are each around $28,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In Alabama, period products are free in schools with high poverty rates.
Rolanda Hollis, a Democratic state senator in Alabama, sponsored the bill that made this happen.
“It actually took me three sessions to pass this bill because the first session that I brought this bill out, it was more of educating the men,” she said. “It got to the point where I was like, ‘If it wasn’t for a period, you wouldn’t be here right now.’ … When we did surveys, we were seeing that it was the principals, the counselors and the nurses that was paying for the products. I’m like, we want it to be free to our kids, but we also don’t want all the burden on the school as well and so that last session I was able to put the $200,000 in the bill.”
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It is largely men, as Hollis said, who need to learn how essential the products are in the lives of around half the world’s population, but the need for period education does not end there.
Marlowe, through her work with the The Period Project in South Carolina, said she has learned more about what kinds of people are impacted by period poverty in South Carolina and beyond. It’s not only women, she said. It’s the transgender community, too.
Finn Gillette, a 21-year-old Coastal student and a transgender man, said going into a drug store to buy period products is not as easy for him as it is for a woman.
“If I run out and I have to go out and get some, I feel like I need to bring a buddy or a more feminine looking friend,” Gillette said.
Using the term period products instead of feminine hygiene products is better, Gillette said.
Even organizations like Aunt Flow are changing their marketing approach.
“Not all people with periods identify as women and not all women have periods, so we are trying to change that dialogue to be more inclusive and make products that make people feel good versus the old ones that are super outdated and made by people that do not have periods,” Howard from Aunt Flow said.
Pat O’Brien remembers seeing a period product commercial for the first time on TV more than 50 years ago.
The pad was as bulky as a diaper and attached to a belt, not at all like the pads made today, showing just how outdated the old ones are.
O’Brien was around 18 when she and her friends went silent as they were watching such a personal, practically secretive, product be advertised on TV.
“We were so embarrassed. We didn’t know what to say,” she said. “We just didn’t talk about things like that.”
O’Brien volunteers with The Period Project in Myrtle Beach to help make the topic less taboo than it was when she was growing up.
“It’s just talking about it in a normal way that makes it better,” she said. “Women and girls are better with it but men and boys are still weird."
Caroline Surface, a 20-year-old Coastal student, said saying “period” felt like profanity in her Catholic school growing up.
“It was like a cuss word,” she said. “Luckily, I had a great older sister and a mom that prepared me for it but my school didn’t teach it well. Like I thought if I had sex, I would definitely get an STD. I didn’t know any better. I came from a blessed family so I never really had to worry about money for pads and tampons, but my heart hurts for other people who don’t have that.”
Health advocates fear that some South Carolinians’ health is at risk each month as many resort to using products for longer than is recommended because they can’t afford enough pads or tampons to cover a whole cycle.
Those receiving government assistance receive no help covering the cost of these supplies.
Menstrual products are not covered by WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, which is a national program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and managed at the state level by DHEC in South Carolina.
“I see the need. I see how expensive it is. It’s insane that it’s taxed,” said Redding Saderberg, a volunteer with The Period Project.
Considering all of the items South Carolina has made tax free, some advocates are baffled as to why there is still a 6% tax on these hygiene products.
“Our list of sales tax exemptions — just hundreds and hundreds. I mean, machinery, lottery tickets, dry cleaning supplies, zoo animals — So why not?” Gustafson said. “Why not do this, you know, more than half of our population in South Carolina is women. So we need to do this.”
Gustafson said those who feel strongly about these inequities should attend lawmakers’ subcommittee meetings in Columbia.
“That goes for any piece of legislation,” she said. “If there’s something you really feel strongly about, be watching the daily schedule, which is easy to do, and find out if there’s a subcommittee meeting so you can go and speak if you’d like to speak because no one’s allowed to speak at the full committee meetings, only the subcommittee meetings.”
For some health advocates, the struggle to make period products more accessible is one they hope has a shelf life.
“I tell people, I want to be out of a job in the next five years,” Marlowe said. “I don’t know if it’ll happen. But that’s my goal is to be out of this menstrual equity field, not because I don’t love it, but because there would no longer be a need for what we do.”
Katie Powell contributed to this report.
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